Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian investment firm that recently purchased a 2% preferred stock stake in the Facebook social media company is looking to acquire an additional $100 million in common stock shares. The $200 million agreement in May of this year valued Facebook at approximately $10 billion.
The deal this week for current and former Facebook employees is offering $14.77 per common stock share which carries a lower valuation of $6.5 billion. This is not to say that Facebook is now valued at $6.5 billion, rather that common stock does not offer the same privileges and guaranties for shareholders as preferred stock. “If the Facebook employee has been locked up several years, it’s a good opportunity for them to sell some shares and get some liquidity,” says Stuart Campbell, a lawyer with Davis Wright Tremaine LLP in Seattle who focuses on startups.
Facebook board member Marc Andreessen last week stated he expects company revenues to reach $500 million in 2009.
Rival platform MySpace finally lost traction to Facebook in the United States this May based on comScore traffic statistics. Facebook has been the number one social network in the world for over a year now.
Source: Bloomberg
Yesterday Facebook accepted a $200 million dollar offer from Russian Internet investment group Digital Sky Technologies. The deal values Facebook at $10 billion and gives Digital Sky about a 2% preferred stock stake in the company. Only a year and a half ago a funding round with Microsoft valued Facebook at $15 billion, which may have been the “absolute peak of the market,” according to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Depressed economic conditions today are sure to play a role in the declining valuation.
This investment could bring additional value to the Facebook brand with the extensive knowledge that Digital Sky has of the Russian and Eastern European markets.
Early last week we reported that Facebook turned down a $200 million dollar offer with a valuation of $8 billion. The terms of that deal included a seat on the Facebook board of directors. Our sources did not state where the offer had come from, but this Tuesday’s acceptance by Facebook could very well be that same deal renegotiated.
Recently Facebook reportedly turned down $200 million in funding at a generous valuation of $8 billion because of the stipulation that a board of directors seat come along with the deal. Mark Zuckerberg is serious about keeping control of the board which he currently holds three common stock seats, one for himself, one for Marc Andreessen (co-founder and chairman of Ning) and the last of which is currently empty.
The latest financial projections from Facebook show that the company estimates revenues of $550 million in 2009, nearly double their 2008 revenue of $280 million. While some consider these estimates to be a stretch, they most likely attributed to the $8 billion valuation in the recent offer (still a far cry from last round’s $15 billion valuation).
Source: TechCrunch
