Facebook's IPO Will Mint More Than a Thousand Millionaires

Now that the world's largest social network has finally filed for an initial public offering, the dust can settle and the media frenzy can die down. Right? 

Hardly. From now until May, when Facebook is expected to actually debut on the market, count on everyone and their dog to be talking about it. All the time. Experts will ponder: will the stock go up, down, sideways, or loop-the-loop? Analysts will debate: will Mark Zuckerberg be praised as a hero or mocked as a fool? And your loony neighbour will continue to pester you with stupid questions on your wall: will monkeys rule the Earth?

But one thing is for sure about Facebook's IPO. It's going to make a lot of people filthy, stinking rich. With the papers filed, it's been confirmed that Reuters' December estimations are correct: well over 1,000 Facebook employees will become newly minted millionaires when the company goes public. And many of them will be multi-multi-millionaires, even billionaires.

Among them is Sheryl Sandberg, Zuck's right-hand woman, who will be worth up to $2 billion. The savvy Peter Thiel will fetch a cool $2-billion-plus himself, while co-founder Dustin Moskovitz will be ludicrously rich—upward of $7 billion will fill his pockets.

Crazy numbers, but alas, none of that comapres to the man of the hour—and Time's Man of the Year in 2010—who will be worth as much as $28 billion. Even in the low 20s, Mark Zuckerberg will be the world's richest person under 35. And if in fact he does garner the full 28, he will have more self-made wealth than any other human his age in the history of the world. Not too shabby for a Harvard dropout's in-dorm side project.

Zuck's birthday is May 14th, too. How's multiple billions of dollars for a birthday present?