The Russian investment firm has put money into Facebook a couple of times now, and it’s time to reap the rewards. The company sold 45 million shares last week, giving the company a payment worth $US1.7 billion – enough to keep founder Yuri Milner happy.
But who’s the man behind all this? That would be Russian steel tycoon Alisher Usmanov, who led the investment made through Digital Sky Technologies.
Mail.ru, the other vehicle through which Usmanov invested, sold 11.3 million shares at $428 million.
This late-stage investment firm offered just seven million shares on Friday, but it gained the company a cool $266 million. The company was founded by a partnership between Accel Partners, and a few other investment firms, but since then has operated pretty much independently.
The founder of social gaming company Zynga essentially owes his livelihood to Facebook, so it’s little wonder Mark Pincus cashed out last week. Although he sold just one million of his shares, he came away with $US38 million.
