Mark Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old Facebook founder and the biggest climber on this year’s Forbes 400, has just agreed to donate $100 million to Newark’s troubled public schools.  The tech whiz kid is expected to appear on fellow Forbes billionaire Oprah Winfrey’s show tomorrow to announce the gift, alongside Newark Mayor Cory Booker and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.  This is the first time Zuckerberg has made a large-scale public charitable donation. Today, the media’s attention has been piqued by both the timing and nature of the pledge, which amounts to $100 million in Facebook stock rather than cash.  My Forbes colleague Steve Bertoni wonders how the city of Newark will turn the privately owned, illiquid shares of Facebook into usable cash for their troubled school system:  How does Zuckerberg donate $100 million shares worth of Facebook, when no one really knows what a share of Facebook is even worth? Will he use an internal valuation, or will Newark simply sell Zuckerberg’s shares in private placements or on the secondary markets until it hits the $100 million mark?  Forbes’ Dan Bigman wonders about the timing of Zuckerberg’s announcement, which was leaked to coincide with the release of this year’s Forbes 400 rich list, which sees the Facebook whiz’s net worth up 275% from last year. As Quentin Hardy reports in the October 11 issue of Forbes, out today, Zuckerberg is uncomfortable being linked to such huge wealth. Could his gift be a way of downplaying his vast fortune, and his growing public profile — one that’s getting a massive boost from the upcoming release of The Social Network movie?  Dylan Stableford at TheWrap.com thinks so, writing this morning:  The timing of Zuckerberg’s donation will draw plenty of attention from Silicon Valley to Hollywood. That’s because “The Social Network,” David Fincher’s buzzed-about movie that portrays Zuckerberg as “an insecure jerk who screws over people and becomes a much-richer insecure jerk,” comes out on the same day.  Josh Duboff at New York Magazine calls the gift “well-timed”, adding:  Timing the donation a week before the premiere of The Social Network and mere hours before the 26-year-old jumped past Steve Jobs to No. 35 on the Forbes 400 list makes it look like the PR move of the month. We guess Zuckerberg hasn’t been listening to our cries that “the Rashomon-like” movie tells his side of the story too.  While Chris Dawson of tech blog ZDNet “hates to be cynical” about the staggering $100 million gift, he writes that the timing of the donation feels like a publicity stunt, especially with a suspected Facebook Phone launch around the corner:  What better way to cement the Facebook brand with the young people who made Zuckerberg a billionaire (and who are increasingly looking elsewhere for social media minus their parents) than a huge donation to schools?  What do you think? Was the gift heartfelt or cunning PR? Post your view in the social stream on his profile.
What's behind Mark Zuckerberg's gift to Newark schools? Web pundits call it a PR coup ahead of The Social Network's release, and a bid to downplay his growing wealth.