Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) director sells shares to pay tax

Last week, Following the expiry of trading restrictions on Facebook Inc(NASDAQ:FB) shares, one of its board member Marc Andreessen sold shares in the company worth $54 million to pay his tax dues.

While insider investors have largely been holding on to Facebook shares in recent weeks, despite their shares being released from lock-up some have had to liquidate their holdings in order to raise funds to pay tax on their holdings.

Another large investor Donald Graham, chairman and chief executive of the Washington Post and a director on the board of Facebook sold about $6.7 million worth of the shares on Monday, for the same reason, according to a regulatory filing.

According to a Facebook filing earlier this year both Andreessen and Graham are selling shares to cover tax obligations incurred from the recent vesting or settlement of restricted stock units in the company.

Facebook made its stock market debut in May this year offering its shares at $38 apiece, in an IPO remembered more for its trading mess.

Concerns surfaced almost immediately about the ability of the company to sustain its revenue growth especially in mobilising revenues from mobile devices.

The stock lost half its value in a few months. It has seen an upsurge recently, especially after its third quarter results which showed that the company was taking its mobile revenue challenges seriously.

On Monday chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg also sold shares worth $4.2 million according to a filing while engineering vice president Michael Schroepfer sold a little more than $1 million worth of shares in recent days.