Digital Sky Technologies, the Russian investment company which recently put US$200 million into social networking giant Facebook, has offered to buy another US$100 million worth of stock from current employees.
Existing Facebook workers can sell their shares for US$14.77 each under the new agreement, moving Digital Sky’s stake in the firm to 3.5% if all employees accept the offer.
Digital Sky invested US$200 million in Facebook in May, valuing the site at US$10 billion. The recent offering is only valued at US$6.5 billion because it only deals with common shares, not preferred stock.
Facebook currently has over 900 employees across the US, Europe and Australia, but the site has refused to comment on how many employees will be eligible for the share offer.
Instead, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement the company is looking forward to the deal with Digital Sky, which was signalled in the company’s original offer in May.
“This is recognition of Facebook’s growth and progress towards making the world more open and connected,” Zuckerberg said.
Digital Sky operates other social networking sites including vKontakte, which it says is the “biggest website in Russia”. The company’s assets count for over 70% of all page views in Russia.
Zuckerberg said in May that they accepted DST as an investor to help grow the business. He said Facebook would “consider [investment] for no other reason than to have more buffer if we want to do something in the future”.
DST is run by entrepreneur Yuri Milner along with Gregory Finger, former chief of the Moscow branch of billion-dollar hedge fund NCH, and Alexander Tamas, previously co-head of internet and software for Goldman Sachs’ investment banking division.
The share offer comes after Facebook board member Mark Andreessen said last week that Facebook could reach US$1 billion in revenue if it pushes its advertising channels hard enough. Chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said in April that revenue will increase by 70% this year, with the site becoming cashflow positive in 2010.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
