Marc Andreessen sells Facebook shares to pay tax

INVESTOR Marc Andreessen has sold $54m worth of Facebook shares.

Andreessen was an early investor in Facebook through his venture capital fund, which left him with a considerable profit, and a large tax bill. Now he has dumped part of his holding in Facebook for $54m in order to pay the tax.

Facebook had previously disclosed in September that Andreessen would sell some of his stock in order to cover tax liabilities, and sure enough the sale came. Andreessen got a better deal than he would have a few weeks ago, as the firm's stock has risen after fears of a sell-off by employees did not materialise.

Andreessen sold some Class A shares in two transactions for $23.37 and $23.93, after which he still owns in excess of 3.5m shares in the firm. According to a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Andreessen made the sale on Monday from his "Andreessen 1996 Living Trust".

Facebook's share price has held steady around the $23 mark since last week when a large number of employees got the chance to sell their shares in the firm but didn't. While the firm's share price is still significantly down from its initial public offering, the future of Facebook's stock is looking better than it did a few months ago. µ