Facebook suitors facing $10 billion price tag

by Stevie Smith - May 27 2009, 15:15

Having come through a succession of actual and rumoured acquisition attempts from various heavyweight bidders, while the tech industry continued to debate its true financial worth, social networking titan Facebook would appear to now carry a value of $10 billion USD.

Earlier this week, Facebook confirmed it has accepted $200 million USD from Russian Internet investment company Digital Sky Technologies (DST) in return for preferred stock worth 1.96 percent of the leading social networking destination.

Noteworthy as being the first time Facebook has sought such massive equity funding since Microsoft pumped in $240 million USD during the closing months of 2007, the sizable investment also sets the network’s overall value at around $10 billion USD.

While a daunting price tag for any potential suitor, that figure is a marked decrease when gauged against the $15 billion USD evaluation that resulted from Microsoft’s 1.6 percent stock purchase.

“It might come in handy if we want to expand,” commented Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a BusinessWeek interview regarding DST’s investment.

“We felt the valuation was good. Having additional money will allow us to explore new things, such as building data centers or acquiring companies,” added Zuckerberg, although he maintained that the company presently has no intention of bleeding the cash injection.

According to the young Facebook CEO and founder, DST’s offer appealed to the network based on the Russian company’s established experience in helping socially-structured online communities turn more profit.

The Tech Herald: Caution: Social networking rots the brain

The Tech Herald: StudiVZ sued by Facebook following acquisition impasse

 

Want regular updates from The Tech Herald? Follow us on Twitter.

Interested in a more interactive TTH? Join our Facebook Group.

Around the Web