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Is Facebook Worth $10 Billion? Digital Sky Bets $200M on Yes

by Truemorist | May 26, 2009 at 01:42 pm

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Russian company Digital Sky Technologies is getting set to buy a 2% stake in Facebook for $200 million, which puts King Zuckerberg's social networking Crackbook valuation at a hefty $10 billion, halfway through 2009.

Admittedly, that's $5 billion down from the $15 billion price-tag-in-potentia FB was valued at back in 2007, when Bill Gates and Microsoft chipped in a fat $240 million for just a 1.6% stake in the company.

Still, this is sure to keep would-be social media entrepeneurs and web start-up recessionistas, gleefully rubbing their hands together in eager hopes that they too might one day sell their non-monetizable, perpetually pre-revenue "kewl online community" for a cool fistful of millions.

They won't.

But will Zuck?

The investment gives Digital Sky Technologies a nearly 2 percent stake in Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook's preferred stock. Digital Sky won't get a board seat.

The $10 billion valuation for Facebook is less than the $15 billion value implied in 2007, when Microsoft spent $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in the company _ even though Facebook has substantially grown since then. However Facebook's own appraisal after the Microsoft deal gave the company a market value of about $3.7 billion, according to details revealed in a legal settlement.

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facebook chaser (not verified)

at 23:50 on May 26th, 2009

If i was Zuck - i'd bail while you're ahead of the game, sell out and life the rest of your life on the hundreds of millions / apparent billions that he would get for his shares..."quitting while you're head is not the same as quitting" ;-)