Facebooks first big investor Peter Thielcashes outby Julianne Pepitone and Stacy Cowley CNNTech

August 20 2012 1021 PM ET

Peter Thiel Facebooks first big investor has sold o most of his stake turning his initial$500000 investment into more than $1 billion in cash

Thiel became a Facebook investor in 2004 when Mark Zuckerberg first set out to turn his dormroom project into a lasting business Thiel and his associated investment funds held more than44 million shares of Facebook when the company went public He sold o 168 million shares inthe IPO netting $640 million

Facebooks lockup rules required some early shareholders including Thiel to hold on to theirremaining stock for a certain period That period ended on Thursday setting more than 270million shares free

Thiel took advantage He and his funds sold o 20 million shares worth a total of $3958 millionaccording to a regulatory filing The stock sales made at per-share prices that ranged from$1927 to $2069 took Thiels total Facebook cash-out to just over $1 billion

The stock sales represent a near-exit for Thiel who has now liquidated almost all of hisFacebook holdings He and his funds are still sitting on around 56 million shares worth $112million at Mondays closing price

He didnt sell because of Facebooks ( ) slumping stock price though The regulatory formrevealed that Thiel locked the sale plans in place on May 18 the day of Facebooks IPO His planwas to cash out his holdings when the lockup expired no matter what price Facebooks shareswere trading at

Related story Who sold o their Facebook shares

Peter Thiel sold about 20 million Facebook shares through various investment funds in sales worth a total of$3958 million

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Thiel will score a tidy sum for himself but he wont take home the full $395 million Some of it willgo to investors in the funds through which he bought the shares

Facebook is Thiels second big Silicon Valley windfall He made his first smaller fortune fromPayPal where he served as CEO until eBay acquired the firm in 2002 He has gone on tobecome an active investor in and adviser to scores of other startups

Other funds also distributed Facebook shares last week to their investors In a sign of just howinterconnected Silicon Valley is some of those shares went to Netflix ( ) CEO Reed Hastingsa Facebook board member who recently spent $1 million buying Facebook shares on the openmarket

Hastings is also an investor in Accel Partners When Accel distributed shares Hastings picked upalmost 22000 more shares -- valued at around $435000 -- to add to his stash

CNNMoney (New York)First published August 20 2012 702 PM ET

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