Facebook has gotten a new $60 million investment from Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, in what could be move to get savvy help in China as the popular social network prowls for the best way to enter the hyper-competitive market.
Li Ka-shing (pictured here) was named ninth richest person in the world by Forbes, valued at $23 billion. Among his investments are Tom.com, a Chinese web company that could be a possible partner for Facebook in China.
The investment, first reported by AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher, comes on top of Microsoft’s recent $240 million into the company at a very high $15 billion valuation. Details of the investment by the 79-year-old Li Ka-shing are few, and so it’s not clear whether he invested at the same value or not. As part of the Microsoft deal, Facebook agreed to an advertising relationship. Similar to that deal, Facebook may have made promises to Li Ka-shing or to one of his companies to compensate for that high valuation, though that’s speculation on our part.
Li Ka-shing is the chairman of Cheung Kong Holdings Limited and Hutchison Whampoa Limited, a large conglomerate with 250,000 employees. He is especially active in Hong Kong, where he has investments in telecommunications, real estate, electricity, retail, shipping and the internet. Recently, he’s started investing in Silicon Valley companies, backing the P2P internet television company, Joost, for example.
He also has the right to invest another $60 million in Facebook, according to Swisher.
6 Comments
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Zemode said:
It’s interesting you tag Joost as a Silicon Valley company.
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Colin Shoebridge said:
“Facebook has gotten a new $60 investment” - $60 bucks dude! Do some editorial control…
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Shak said:
very very smart move by both Facebook and Li Ka Shing, that man is a legend in Asia, and if anyone can make it happen in China, he sure is 1 of them…
you failed to mention he owns some of the most prime real estate in Shanghai and Beijing (think 5th Avenue or Regent Street) .
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Inaki said:
Joost is not a Silicon Valley company…. non of the companies started by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis (Skype, Kazaa or Joost) were located in the Valley.
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Greg Tarr said:
Most Likely Li Ka Shing invested thru his Li Ka Shing Foundation investment vehicle based in Hong Kong.
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Matt Marshall said:
added “million”. thanks.
4 Trackbacks
1:41 am
Li Ka Shing invests in Facebook at JCurve.info said:
[...] Ka Shing invested $60m into Facebook reports Venture Beat. Not bad! Now Facebook clearly has Asian and China ambitions. It’s too big a market to ignore [...]
12:33 pm
VentureBeat » Can Facebook stand tall against Big Brother?” said:
[...] say, Yahoo’s mail service. Facebook has already started moving into the Chinese market. It has recently taken $60 million in funding from Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, although it’s not clear how [...]
5:20 pm
VentureBeat » Web companies raising lots of money, to make themselves recession-proof said:
[...] look at the social networks. Facebook raised $240 million from Microsoft last October, then raised another $60 million from Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing in November, and an undisclosed amount from European [...]
12:28 pm
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[...] we noted at the time of Ka-Shing’s first investment, Facebook needs a strong ally in China to help it [...]