According to the New York Times, Facebook has raised funds from Goldman Sachs and a Russian investor in a deal valuing the social networking site at $50 billion.
Goldman Sachs is reportedly investing $450 million and Digital Sky Technologies another $50 million, and at a valuation of $50 billion it makes them worth more than companies like eBay,Time Warner and Yahoo.
Goldman’s involvement raises speculation that Facebook might float on the stock market, although this is being denied by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
This new investment is expected to be used to fund the development of new products, poach valuable employees from other companies and possibly make acquisitions.
The deal could also virtually double Mark Zuckerberg’s personal fortune, estimated by Forbes at $6.9 billion when Facebook was valued at $23 billion. Not to be sniffed at. If so, it would put him into the same league as Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google.