Facebook Takes That $200 Million Investment From The Russians At A $10 Billion Valuation. –
Summary
And recently, Facebook turned down an investment valuing the company at $8 billion, with the stipulation that the investor get a board seat. During a conference call today, CEO Mark Zuckerberg he confirmed that other investors had approached Facebook, saying: “It was really at our option to find someone we wanted to work with on our terms.” No doubt, part of the appeal of taking the Russian money was to set the company’s new valuation at something easier to stomach than what the common stock was going for in private sales. Additionally, DST has the option to buy another $100 million worth of common stock from existing employees and investors. Facebook hopes to give some of its employees liquidity with this separate deal with DST, which it views as a long=term investor. Despite recent public statements from COO Sheryl Sandberg saying that Facebook does not need the money, it can certainly use the cash to fund its growing operations, including bandwidth, storage, and engineering costs.