Facebook execs pump cash into PAC

Top officials at Facebook pumped $170,000 into the company’s new PAC in 2011 — a sure sign that the company is ready to be a political player as it prepares for its IPO this year.

Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, David Ebersman, Marne Levine, Joe Lockhart and Joel Kaplan each maxed out to the PAC with $5,000 contributions last year, according to its first year-end disclosure. Some of the company’s board members — including Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen and Erskine Bowles — also showered Facebook’s new election checkbook with cash. It’s a high level of buy-in from the top echelon of the company — one that signals a growing desire at Facebook to become more active politically, and an investment that puts the company’s PAC a small step closer to the same political class as other major tech companies.