Shares of social media giant Facebook (FB) are diving on Monday after the founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg ditched plans to create a new class of shares. Zuckerberg also said late Friday that he would sell shares in the company.

STOCK RESTRUCTURING: Just days before the Facebook CEO was to appear in court to testify in response to a class action lawsuit which aimed to stymie Facebook's stock shuffling plans, the company announced it was abandoning the idea. The plan, which was announced in April of 2016, would have allowed Zuckerberg to maintain control of the company while staying committed to divesting most of his wealth to philanthropic causes. Google (GOOG, GOOGL) founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin made a similar move in 2014 by creating a three-class share structure. Google created the Class C shares that have no voting rights to fund employee compensation and acquisitions. Dual class shares have been a thorn in the side of investors for years as they are perceived as allowing corporations to be less shareholder friendly. Other companies with dual-class share structures include Zynga (ZNGA) and Groupon (GRPN).

ZUCKERBERG CONFIRMS: Late Friday, Facebook officially announced the end of the share reorganization and disclosed that Zuckerberg plans to sell 35M to 75M shares of Facebook stock over the next 18 months in order to fund his philanthropic initiative. In a posting to his personal Facebook page, Zuckerberg commented that his plans for a dual-class were to ensure that he and his wife could do their part to address "global challenges -- like curing all diseases in our children's lifetime and personalizing education for every student." The dual class, according to the CEO, would have allowed him to "keep voting control of Facebook so we can continue to build for the long term, but also allow Priscilla and me to fund the work we're doing through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative." According to his Facebook post, Zuckerberg feels that the company has a "better" solution now. Zuckerberg sees the share appreciation over the past 18 months, almost 52%, as allowing he and his wife to go forward with their plans to give away 99% of their Facebook shares during their lives. "In fact, we now plan to accelerate our work and sell more of those shares sooner. I anticipate selling 35-75 million Facebook shares in the next 18 months to fund our work in education, science, and advocacy," he said.

ELECTION PROBE PRESSURE: Late last week, Facebook said it was turning over thousands of advertisements that may be linked to the alleged Russian attempt to influence last year's US presidential election. During a Facebook live video stream, the Facebook CEO said the company is limited in what the can disclose about law enforcement investigations. "But we support Congress in deciding how to best use this information to inform the public, and we expect the government to publish its findings when their investigation is complete," the company stated.

PRICE ACTION: Shares of Facebook closed just off session lows, down nearly 5% to $162.87 on Monday.