Zoom founder Eric Yuan cashes in $6bn of shares
Zoom boss Eric Yuan has transferred about 18m of his shares worth roughly $6bn (£4.4bn), according to a regulatory filing.
Yuan, who set up the video conferencing app in 2011, transferred roughly 40 per cent of his stake in the company to unspecified beneficiaries.
The transfers were done in two tranches of about 9m shares each and were shown as gifts, according to the filing.
A Zoom spokesperson said the transfers were related to Yuan’s estate planning practices, adding: “The distributions were made in accordance with the terms of Eric Yuan and his wife’s trusts.”
Zoom has been one of the major winners of the pandemic, rising from a relatively unknown tech platform to a household name due to home working, schooling and socialising.
The rapid growth in popularity has resulted in its share price tripling over the last 12 months, leaving the firm with a market capitalisation of more than $90bn.
It has also made Yuan, a former manager of Webex at Cisco, into a billionaire. His net worth is currently $13.7bn, according to Forbes.
While Zoom has cashed in on rapid growth over the last year, it is now facing questions over whether it can maintain momentum as Covid restrictions begin to ease around the world.
Earlier this year the company launched a $1.5bn share sale, but did not say what it plans to do with the capital.