Facebook Looking for More Cash

Date: Monday, October 29, 2007
Author: HFN Daily Report

Facebook, the online social networking site, is looking for a few more good investors, including hedge funds and private equity groups, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Facebook apparently feels that it doesn't need to stop with computer software giant Microsoft's $240 million investment for a 1.6% equity stake announced earlier this week. Microsoft placed a $15 billion valuation on Facebook, according to a statement put out by the two companies.

The race to invest in hot online properties has been going great guns this year, prompting some analysts to warn of a return to the dot.com times before the bust. But this time around, the deals are all about the potential for online advertising.

Microsoft lost out to Google, its biggest rival for the heart and soul of the Internet, in a bid for the web-based advertising company DoubleClick, which Google picked up for $3.1 billion in April. But Microsoft went right back out into the marketplace and made a deal for aQuantitative, a DoubleClick competitor, for almost $6 billion.