Facebook raising another round of financing?
Facebook, the popular social network, is considering raising another round of capital that will easily value it in the billions of dollars, according to AllthingsD’s Kara Swisher.
The company needs a war chest for expansion, and wants to make some strategic acquisitions, but doesn’t have quite enough cash on hand. The young company is growing quickly, but has taken only $35 million in venture backing, with $32 million of that last year. Its revenue is on track to hit $150 million this year, according to its investors.
So why not raise even more money while money is loose and there’s so much hype around Facebook that investors will pay top dollar for a piece of the company? Microsoft and several other companies and investment firms have inquired about an investment, Swisher says.
VentureBeat has heard talk for months about different possibilities for such a round. Several months ago, for example, several large investors were offering to buy a portion of Facebook founders’ shares, in order to give the founders cash now, instead of them having to wait for an IPO. Mark Zuckerberg started the company on a shoestring budget, and hasn’t been able to tap into his success yet. Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners was rumored to be one of the investors.
Investor Peter Thiel has publicly said that Facebook may worth around $10 billion. Thiel also said that the company would not go public until its business was stronger and not until at least 2009.
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About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
