By Habeeb Ibrahim
In the early days of Facebook, two young men at Harvard University set out to create a social networking platform that would change the world. Mark Zuckerberg provided the technical vision; Eduardo Saverin supplied the seed funding.
However, what began as a promising partnership quickly descended into one of the most controversial business fallouts in Silicon Valley history.
Saverin, a Brazilian economics major, reportedly invested $1,000 initially to help Zuckerberg launch “TheFacebook” in February 2004. He later contributed another $18,000 to cover the cost of servers and expansion. In return, Saverin was given a 30 percent stake and served as the company’s first chief financial officer and business manager.
However, as the platform gained traction and Zuckerberg relocated to Silicon Valley to scale the business, tensions grew between the co-founders. Saverin remained in New York for a summer internship, a move that would prove consequential.
According to multiple reports, including email records later revealed in court, Zuckerberg became increasingly influenced by Sean Parker, the co-founder of Napster, who questioned Saverin’s role in the company.
By late 2004, Facebook attracted its first major investor, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, who agreed to inject $500,000 into the startup. The investment came with a restructuring condition—one that would lead to Saverin unknowingly signing away his control. Legal filings later revealed that Zuckerberg authorized the issuance of new shares in January 2005, diluting Saverin’s ownership to nearly zero.
Saverin filed a lawsuit in 2005, accusing Zuckerberg and Facebook of breach of fiduciary duty and unfair dilution of shares. The legal battle dragged on for four years until a confidential out-of-court settlement was reached in 2009. While the exact terms remain undisclosed, Saverin retained his title as co-founder and received an estimated 4% to 5% stake in the company.
When Facebook went public in 2012, Saverin’s shares were reportedly worth around $2 billion. Since then, the value has soared. As of 2025, with Meta (formerly Facebook) valued at over $1.5 trillion, his stake is estimated to be worth more than $38 billion.
In a dramatic twist, Saverin renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2011 before Facebook’s IPO, a move that reportedly saved him hundreds of millions of dollars in capital gains taxes. He now resides in Singapore, where he works as a venture capitalist and maintains a relatively private life.
Despite being ousted from the company he helped build, Saverin has never publicly criticized Zuckerberg.
