![]() |
| UPDATED: 2008-07-11 |
Facebooks Latest Valuation: Less Than $5B
By: Jordan McCollum 2008-07-11 If youve forgotten, just nine months ago, Microsoft purchased a 1.6% stake in Facebook for $240 million. Doing the math from that... ...the total value of Facebook last October was $15B. But apparently this possibly-soon-to-be-recession-(though-technically-still-not,-people!) has really hurt the social utility. Rumors are circulating on Silicon Alley Insider and TechCrunch that Facebooks current value is less than $5B"and as low as $3 or $4 billion. SAI cites rumors appearing in their comments for weeks that Facebooks value is plummeting"and, more importantly, a source who was offered a 0.25% stake for $12.5M just two months ago. Once again turning to our trusty, rusty algebra, that gives a more recent total value of $5B. Even more damning, Mike Arrington says that Bill Dagley, the managing director of a fund of high value investors (you know, VCs), is rumored to be shopping around some discount Facebook shares as well: "Weve been forwarded one email conversation from a source, where Dagley asks if theyd be interested in buying shares of Facebook from current holder? Another person who was approached said the asking price was $3-$4 billion. A third source says the total amount of stock being sold is around $30 million." "The seller was never disclosed, but its likely a current or ex-Facebook exec who wasnt required to sign special agreements with investors during the venture rounds. That likely means they can theoretically sell their stock once its vested and paid for." This news comes just days after a court ruled in the ConnectU settlement that the Microsoft deal valuation was different than the valuation disclosed in the press release"ie Facebook was never worth $15B. While a valuation of $3-5B is a much more reasonable figure than $15B for a network thats still struggling with monetization, its also still a pretty mind-boggling figure. What do you think? Is $5 billion asking too much for Facebook? Comments Tag: Facebook Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit | Furl About the Author: Jordan McCollum is a staff writer for the popular marketing blog Marketing Pilgrim. She has worked in search engine optimization with clients including 3M, Little Giant Ladders and ADP. After graduating from Brigham Young University, Jordan joined the SEO copywriting team at the Internet marketing firm 10x Marketing. After 10x closed its doors in December 2006, Jordan became a freelance writer and Internet marketing consultant specializing in SEO. She also has extensive experience with web analytics, conversion rate enhancement and e-mail marketing. |
|
|||||||||||
| InternetFinancialNews
is an iEntry, Inc. ® publication
© 1998-2008
All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Legal - Sitemap - Contact Us - RSS Feeds |