A Harsh Letter, a $16.8B Loss, and a Plan to Fire Zuckerberg

Facebook shares plummeted 20% after market close Wednesday, and one person in particular felt it more than others. Bloomberg reports Mark Zuckerberg lost about $16.8 billion as a result of the dip, which would not only negate the nearly $14 billion he'd already gained this year—it would also knock his nest egg down to just below $70 billion, per SEC filings cited by Fortune. Should the drop hold through the close Thursday, it would lower his spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index from third place to sixth. Facebook's stock price fall—which the Financial Times, via Newsweek, says is one of the biggest after-market drops ever—came after a statement from Facebook noting average daily visitor numbers and second-quarter revenue didn't meet analyst expectations.

The tech giant has been contending lately with accusations of abusing user privacy, as well as with new EU data mandates. Meanwhile, parents of 6-year-old Sandy Hook victim Noah Pozner slammed Zuckerberg Wednesday in an open letter in the Guardian for not kicking "conspiracy groups and anti-government provocateurs" off the site. And even more bad news looms on the horizon: Business Insider reports that Facebook shareholder Trillium Asset Management has worked up a game plan to have Zuckerberg ousted as chairman due to Facebook's "mishandling" of its various crises. In his place, Trillium wants an independent chair, though Business Insider notes that, because of Zuckerberg's voting power (he retains more than half of the total influence), "the chances of Trillium's proposal becoming reality [are] extremely slim." (For more on Facebook, read about this deep dive into its "wild" early days.)