Skip to main content

Russian Investment Group DST Ups Its Facebook Stake To 5%+, Wants More


Digital Sky Technologies, the Russian investment group founded by Yuri Milner and Gregory Finger, has increased its stake in social networking leader Facebook to more than 5% of the American company, Russia's leading business newspaper Kommersant reports.

Furthermore, DST is looking to increase its stake in Facebook even more, according to Yakov Sadchikov from Quintura, who picked up on the news this morning.

Digital Sky Technologies, the Russian investment group founded by Yuri Milner and Gregory Finger, has increased its stake in social networking leader Facebook to more than 5% of the American company, Russia’s leading business newspaper Kommersant reports.


Furthermore, DST is looking to increase its stake in Facebook even more, according to Yakov Sadchikov from Quintura, who picked up on the news this morning.


The Russian investment group earlier this year invested $200 million in Facebook, giving the company a $10 billion valuation. Additionally, DST at the time had the option to buy another $100 million worth of common stock from existing employees and investors, which is exactly what it ended up doing last July (under unfavorable terms for former Facebook employees).


The Road To 5%


Kommersant now cites a source with inside knowledge of the firm’s operations as saying DST has invested up to $400 million in Facebook to date, bringing its stake in the social networking company to over 5%, more than three times Microsoft’s stake (1.6%).


Broken down, that means Digital Sky Technologies took 1.96% in preferred shares for the $200M financing and increased its total stake by more than 3% so far, by buying up common shares at $14.77 per share.


Hungry For More


Still according to the business paper, the source claimed DST started another round of common share purchasing in October at the same valuation, and intends to increase its Facebook share even more in the future. For your background: Facebook recently said over 350 million people have now registered for the social network, and in September announced that it had turned cash-flow positive. Its annual revenue is estimated at about $500 million.


We’ve contacted Facebook for more information and will update if they get back to us.


Digital Sky Technologies has been pretty busy lately: just this month the investment company announced the merger of Astrum Online with Mail.ru (DST backed both companies), were rumored to be negotiating the acquisition of ICQ with AOL and led a $180 million investment round in social gaming company Zynga.


Something tells me we’ll be hearing much more from the investment firm in 2010.


Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0










Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How to find ideas to post new article in your blog

How to find ideas to post new article in your blog    阅读原文»   It is true that sometimes being a blogger may face situations where I would personally like to call it your brain juices got dried up as you have pretty much ran out of topic to blog and you are in crisis as your readers are anxiously waiting for your new posts but you are unable to give in. That’s when you will probably come with excuses like I just posted last week although that post was more directly towards the newbies who stop themselves from making money but it’s still pretty much the same even though you consider yourself not a newbie. The fact is that ideas are everywhere and I mean everywhere if you know where to find it and know how to leverage it. You may be surprised that sometimes these ideas are just right in front of you but you are not observant enough to convert these ideas and turn it into your blog post. Today I will share some tips on where to get these ideas and...

Lindsay Lohan Breakup Confirmed by Lohan, Locksmith, Police [Gossip Roundup]

Farewell, last season's Suri Cruise fashions. Goodbye, Amy Winehouse's bathing suit. Adieu, humanoid version of Lauren Conrad. And so long, LiLo and SamRon's fairytale romance. Lindsay Lohan confirmed her split with Samantha Ronson and insisted the decision was part of a very healthy and mature effort to " focus on myself ." Upon hearing this, Ronson changed her locks and discussed a restraining order with police, so confident was she in Lohan's ability to turn productively inward. Lohan promptly had a run-in with the police . Who would have imagined such a messy breakup for this model relationship? Courtney Love's lawyer, on her client's drug-fueled plunge into broke-ness: ""Courtney noticed the money was gone when there wasn't any left." Deadpan gallows humor: the only possible response to having Courtney Love as a client. (Besides asking for a hefty retainer.) [ P6 ] Before Lauren Conrad's contract expired in March, MTV...

New Theme: Chteau

New Theme: Chteau    阅读原文» Today we are introducing an elegantly designed and typographically pleasing theme, Chteau . The Chteau Theme Designed by Ignacio Ricci , Chteau has been crafted with close attention to detail and typography. Its beautiful, minimalist look allows you to make your content the focal point of your blog. Aside from a brilliant design, this theme offers many cool features that help you to personalize your blog. There are two color schemes, three layout options, custom accent color, Custom Header Image , Custom Background, six widget areas, and three post formats ― Aside, Gallery and Image. It's loaded with options that make the theme flexible enough to fit a variety of sites. Read all about Chteau's features on the Theme Showcase . Announcing Support for OAuth2 and New Developer Resources    阅读原文» We love developers and the applications they build to help extend WordPress.com in new and meaningful ways. To continue provid...