Godfather
02-02-2012, 06:16 PM
When college dropout Mark Zuckerberg hired graffiti artist David Choe to paint his startup’s office in 2005, he asked if Choe wanted to be paid in cash or in company shares.
After Facebook’s $5 billion IPO — which could value the company at $100 billion — Choe must “Like” that he chose the stock option.
When the network goes public, Choe’s share will be worth about $200 million, the New York Times reports. Advisors to Facebook would have received anywhere from 0.1 to 0.25 per cent of the company for services back then, sources told the paper — a tiny fraction that could translate to enormous sums of money.
Choe’s vibrant Facebook murals can be seen in an album on the social network itself or on his rough-edged blog.
“Truth is stranger than fiction,” wrote Choe in a 2010 blog post reflecting on his paintings at Facebook’s offices.
When the college kids who hired him had “become the richest kids in the universe” and inspired a movie The Social Network, its directors asked him to recreate his murals for the set.
“… But because I had also become a rich famous artist at this point, they could not afford me with their laughable art department budget…” Choe wrote (in a post that contains content unsuitable to link to).
To commission one of Choe’s pieces, it costs as little as $1,000 and up to $50,000, according to his website. Whether his Facebook payday will boost his prices remains to be seen.
After Facebook’s $5 billion IPO — which could value the company at $100 billion — Choe must “Like” that he chose the stock option.
When the network goes public, Choe’s share will be worth about $200 million, the New York Times reports. Advisors to Facebook would have received anywhere from 0.1 to 0.25 per cent of the company for services back then, sources told the paper — a tiny fraction that could translate to enormous sums of money.
Choe’s vibrant Facebook murals can be seen in an album on the social network itself or on his rough-edged blog.
“Truth is stranger than fiction,” wrote Choe in a 2010 blog post reflecting on his paintings at Facebook’s offices.
When the college kids who hired him had “become the richest kids in the universe” and inspired a movie The Social Network, its directors asked him to recreate his murals for the set.
“… But because I had also become a rich famous artist at this point, they could not afford me with their laughable art department budget…” Choe wrote (in a post that contains content unsuitable to link to).
To commission one of Choe’s pieces, it costs as little as $1,000 and up to $50,000, according to his website. Whether his Facebook payday will boost his prices remains to be seen.