Digital Sky Invests $200 million in Facebook
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Yesterday, it was announced by Facebook that Russian internet investment firm Digital Sky Technologies has bought a 1.96 percent hold in the site for $200 million, which puts a $10 billion valuation on the company. The interest of Digital Sky was first seen on Friday with a report from the Wall Street Journal. The investment group has also offered to purchase $100 million worth of common stock in Facebook that is held by current shareholders. Digital Sky is not to get a seat on the board of the company.
Facebook had been rumored to be looking for new funds in order to buy back employee stock, as well as finance the lease of new servers, for a while, despite chief operating officer Cheryl Sandberg insisting that the company had already raised $500 million earlier this month. She said that the company couldn’t have been doing better as far as finances. She added that they may take money, but that doesn’t mean that they need it.
Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive officer of Facebook, said in a statement that many investment firms had approached them. However, Digital Sky stood out to them due to the global perspective the company brings, which is backed by the financial achievements and impressive growth of their internet investments, he added.
Digital Sky Technologies is run by Yuri Milner, the Russian internet investor and businessman, who also owns pieces of many Russian internet properties, including Mail.ru, the largest Russian website, as well as a Polish social networking website. The deal they have made with Facebook marks the first time that the site has raised such a large amount of funding in the last one-and-a-half years.
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