Facebook exec follows boss in giving millions to charity

SAN FRANCISCO >> Late last year, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, said they would donate 99 percent of their Facebook shares toward a new financial vehicle for charitable purposes.

Now, Zuckerberg’s chief lieutenant, Sheryl Sandberg, is making her own philanthropic move.

Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, plans to transfer nearly $100 million of her Facebook shares to an existing fund, according to a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. She intends to use the new money in the fund for charitable giving, including to groups that deal with women’s empowerment issues, said a person briefed on the plans who was not authorized to speak publicly about them.

Like Zuckerberg, Sandberg has signed the Giving Pledge, a campaign founded by billionaires Bill Gates and Warren E. Buffett, that asks the world’s wealthiest people to give away at least half their wealth either during their lifetime or upon their death.

Hall-of-Famers invest in private equity firm

NEW YORK >> Hall-of-Famers Nolan Ryan and Barry Larkin along with recently retired David Ortiz are among the investors in Dugout Ventures, a new private equity group that supports baseball-focused companies. Dugout Ventures said it provided bridge financing in July to EvoShield, which sells protective gear. EvoShield was then bought by Amer Sports.

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New York Times & Associated Press