Facebook Owner Protecting His Billions with Prenup Agreement?

Facebook Owner Protecting His Billions with Prenup Agreement?

Getting married was a smart personal and business move for the Facebook’s chief Mark Zuckerberg, with the perfect timing of the wedding, the day after the company's initial public offering, proves advantageous, California divorce lawyers said on Sunday.

Assuming the couple signed a prenuptial agreement, they would have agreed exactly how to split assets, including his Facebook stock, if their marriage dissolves in the future. Even without a prenup, the wedding's timing would help establish the value of their assets in case of a future divorce battle, lawyers said.

Chan and Zuckerberg live together in a modest house in Palo Alto, Calif., where they were married on Saturday.  The couple met as undergraduates at Harvard University in 2004.  Zuckerberg, now 28, dropped out of college to concentrate on Facebook, while Chan, a pediatrician, stayed to earn her undergraduate degree.

Had they continued the status quo and didn’t get married, Chan could potentially lay claim to a much larger portion of assets, including a chunk of his $20 billion in Facebook shares, lawyers say.

Lawyers cited the case of Anthony Maglica, the founder of the company that makes Maglite flashlights.  In 1994, an Orange County court awarded $84 million to Maglica's girlfriend Claire, who took his name and lived with him for 23 years.  Although an appeals court reversed the award in 1998, she later negotiated a $29 million settlement.

The same logic of avoiding messy court fights applies to a prenuptial agreement.

In Chan's case, she could lay claim to a portion of the options and grants in Facebook stock that vest during the time of their marriage, lawyers said.

If there were no prenup, or if there were and Chan contested it, she could also try to go after stock Zuckerberg held previously if she could claim it increased in value during the relationship.

It’s a great idea that Zuckerberg got married after the initial public offering and probably made the couple at least consider a prenuptial agreement.

A spokeswoman for Facebook declined to comment however, on whether the couple signed such an agreement.

Posted by Kade Quinn on Tuesday May 22 2012, 3:23 AM EST. Ref: CNN. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Entertainment, Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0