Reuters

The flotation will mean a monster windfall for many past and present employees, including its 27-year-old chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

London - Graffiti artist David Choe described Facebook as ‘ridiculous and pointless’ when he was employed to paint the walls of its first office.

But that didn’t stop him opting for shares over cash when it came to his payment.

That looks like a shrewd decision. His shares could be soon be worth £126million.

The 35-year-old is expected to become one of 1,000 overnight millionaires when Facebook cashes in on its meteoric success and floats on the stock market next month.

The social networking giant that coaxes 845 million people around the world to divulge intimate details about their lives is set to be valued at £63-billion after it filed papers with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The flotation will mean a monster windfall for many past and present employees, including its 27-year-old chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

He is expected to collect nearly £18-billion of shares from his 28 percent stake in the company he founded as a Harvard student.

This will be enough to secure him ninth spot on the Forbes list of richest Americans and put him in the same league as Microsoft’s Bill Gates.

The Winklevoss twins, who sued Mr Zuckerberg because they claimed he stole the idea of Facebook from them, are likely to make around £200-million after being given shares as a settlement.

About a third of the firm’s 3,000 staff worldwide will be made millionaires, including dozens of Britain-based staff.

One is Joanna Shields, vice president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The 49-year-old, who lives with her husband Andy Stevenson, a Formula 1 team manager, and her son from her first marriage, was born in Pennsylvania but is a British citizen and has been London-based for the past decade.

Facebook has 100 employees at its London office in Soho. Last night they left the building in silence, some denying they worked for the company and others saying: ‘We are not allowed to talk about it.’ However one woman who agreed she worked for Facebook left the premises with a suitcase and ski poles.

Facebook’s first employees and venture capital investors will get the biggest bonanzas but even rank-and-file employees are expected to reap the riches.

One unnamed ex-employee who joined in 2005 expects his shares to be worth £31-million and is looking into a space trip that would cost £125,000 or more with Virgin Galactic or one of the other companies working on space tourism.

Until now, only a select few investors have been able to either invest directly in the company or participate in the secondary markets for private shares.

Other big winners from the sale include Elevation Partners, the venture capital firm of U2 frontman Bono, which paid £75million for Facebook shares in 2010.

Mr Zuckerberg said in a letter to prospective investors: ‘Facebook was not originally created to be a company.

‘It was built to accomplish a social mission – to make the world more open and connected.

‘We don’t wake up in the morning with the primary goal of making money, but we understand that the best way to achieve our mission is to build a strong and valuable company.’

Despite owning just a quarter of shares, he will keep a tight rein on the company, controlling 57 percent of votes. - Daily Mail