Facebook pledged to raise $5 billion for its initial public offering on Wednesday, but the company is simultaneously increasing its political fundraising. Facebook’s five-month old political action committee, “FB PAC” recently filed its 2011 year-end disclosure form with the Federal Election Commission, reporting that it raised $170,010 from 44 individual donors including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, COO Sheryl Sandberg and early investor Peter Thiel, who owns 3 percent of the company.
The majority of the donations came in October, the month after Facebook filed to create the PAC. However, eight donors snuck in just before the end of the year and the filing was due in December, including President Bill Clinton’s former Chief of Staff, Erskine Bowles, who joined the Facebook board of directors in September, just a few weeks before the FB PAC was formed.
Bowles, who donated the maximum $5,000 per year per donor allowed by the FEC, also sits on the board of directors of Morgan Stanley, which was named the chief underwriter in Facebook’s IPO.
Zuckerberg and Sandberg also gave the maximum $5,000 each. As did Facebook board member Marc Andreessen, the mega VC founder who’s also invested money in TPM and the Romney-supporting Super PAC Restore Our Future.
FB PAC spent only a tiny amount of that cash, though — $2730 — and most of it on credit card and payment processing fees, to the likes of American Express, PayPal, Bank of America and Equity Commerce.
How much the PAC spends during the 2012 election cycle, and on whom, is anyone’s guess. Stay tuned.
(H/T: First Post)
