Some scoffed when Peter Thiel
told us in July that investors in social networking site Facebook Inc. valued the company at between $7 billion and $10 billion. Now comes
word from The Wall Street Journal Online that Microsoft Corp. could be close to an investment in Facebook that would value the company at $10 billion or more. The report says Microsoft is in talks to buy up to 5% in the company, which is backed by Thiel (who is president of hedge fund Clarium Capital Management and managing partner of VC firm Founders Fund Management), Accel Partners, Greylock Partners and Meritech Capital Partners, for between $300 million and $500 million. That would be chump change for Microsoft, but decent money for Facebook to use for acquisitions, IT infrastructure and to increase its head count.
- David Shabelman
See Wall Street Journal story
See Sept. 24 post from FaceReviews blog
See July 20 story in TheDeal.com
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