Pinterest Founders Double Wealth With Latest Stock Surge
Pinterest Founders Double Their Wealth With Latest Stock Surge
(Bloomberg) -- Pinterest Inc.’s co-founders defied the market slump Wednesday.
Paul Sciarra, Evan Sharp and Ben Silbermann added $750 million to their collective fortunes after the company reported quarterly sales that beat analysts’ expectations.
Strong advertiser demand and a growing user base helped boost the scrapbooking company’s revenue by 58% from a year earlier. Pinterest shares soared as much as 32% in late trading in New York, after the broader market fell the most in months.
Wednesday’s jump means the three are now worth a combined $5.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, more than double their fortune from three months ago.
San Francisco-based Pinterest is among the companies benefiting as consumers increasingly turn online for social engagement, entertainment and communication. The world’s wealthiest tech billionaires have become $409 billion richer this year, a bigger gain than those in any other industry, according to the Bloomberg index.
Founded in 2009, the image-sharing site now has more than 400 million monthly active users.
Chief Executive Officer Silbermann has pocketed $115 million this year selling Pinterest stock through a prearranged trading plan, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. He and and his family benefit from a stake in the company worth about $3 billion, while Silbermann received $46 million in pay and stock awards in 2019, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
“Obviously, there are still a lot of unknowns in the future because of Covid-19,” Silbermann said in an earnings call with analysts Wednesday. “But I’m confident about our team’s ability to innovate in the midst of all this change.”
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