Facebook receives investment from Russian firm
Investment values Facebook at $10 billion
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PrintFacebook announced that a Russian company invested $200 million in the firm in exchange for preferred stock. The investment by Digital Sky Technologies (DST) represents a 1.96 percent equity stake, which values the Palo Alto company at $10 billion.
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
Facebook announced that consistent with its practice with other recent investors, DST will not be represented on the Facebook board or hold special observer rights.
In a statement, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said "this investment demonstrates Facebook’s ongoing success at creating a global network for people to share and connect." In this same statement, Yuri Milner, chief executive of DST said "our investment experience in other regions reveals the tremendous value social networking companies create as they redefine how people communicate and interact."
Founded in February 2004, Facebook now reports having 200 million users, 70 percent of whom live outside the U.S. DST was founded in 2005 and reports that it is the largest internet investor in the Russian-speaking and Eastern European markets.
