Mark Zuckerberg's net worth drops over $15 billion today as Facebook's shares get pounded

That news sent Facebook investors scurrying to their phones this morning in order to dump the stock. After trading as low as $174.78, the stock has somewhat stabilized and is now changing hands at $177.67 for a drop of $39.83, or more than 18%. Overall, the company's valuation declined by more than $120 billion at one point today. Zuckerberg, the co-founder, chairman and CEO of the social media network, was recently listed as the fifth wealthiest American with a net worth computed at $71 billion. Today's decline would take the executive out of the top ten and rank him at number 11, behind Oracle's Larry Ellison.

Zuckerberg reportedly owns 387,095,123 Class A and Class B shares of Facebook. The company has been named in some privacy scandals this year, including the one involving defunct political consultantcy Cambridge Analytica. The latter got its hands on the profiles of 87 million Facebook members without the consent of each subscriber. The data was obtained by Russian-American Aleksandr Kogan, who allegedly sold the information to political operatives to use in the 2016 presidential election.

Facebook's shares initially held up well despite the Cambridge Analytica news, and Zuckerberg's subsequent two-day grilling by the Senate and House. But as many on Wall Street know, a stock can survive scandals and crises; but disappoint the Street by as little as a penny, and it's look out below.

source: FOXBusiness