By Now, it’s not surprise to find the word Facebook in the same sentence as lots of zeros, but a recent rumor going round will still make your jaw drop. Pending a recent fund raiser from Goldman Sachs and a Russian investor, an unnamed source has been kind enough to share some of the figures.
The transaction implies that Goldman Sachs would invest some $450 million while the Russians at Digital Sky Technology would put in an extra $50 million into Facebook.
Given the money shifted around, the terms of this contract would value Facebook at some 50 billion dollars. We knew Zuckerberg is a billionaire but this is ridiculous. If this sum is validated in some way this means that pretty much everybody who’s got a slice of Facebook has the same credit rating, to say the least.
Speaking of Mark Zuckerberg, this sort of deal has the potential of doubling the value of Facebook’s creator. Don’t take that the wrong way, I’m strictly speaking of Facebook’s number one man’s fortune.
The $50 billion valuation also gives the world a somewhat different view on Facebook. With the new “price tag” of the social networking site, it can now be seen as worth more than eBay, Yahoo or Time Warner Company.
In a behind the scenes situation, the new investment allow Facebook to further expand without having the public involved. And since we’re speaking of Facebook, expansion means hiring more people (perhaps from Google), creating new applications or perhaps even new acquisitions.
As much fun as hostile takeovers would sound, the financial world does tend to pressure CEOs and companies into an Initial Public Offering. Everyone eagerly expects this moment as there’s a lot of money to be made from a Facebook IPO.
In order to take away some of that initial eagerness Mark Zuckerberg has gone on record as saying that people shouldn’t hold their breath for a Facebook IPO. He’s the big man at Facebook so a lot has to go by him before it happens and yet, Goldman Sachs has put the word out that Facebook could be looking for an IPO listing as soon as 2012.
