Facebook to let employees sell some stock — at internal $4 billion valuation

Re:Facebook to let employees sell some stock — at internal $... by netcan on Tuesday August 05, 2008 @02:33AM (#267227)

I'm not really literate in the technicalities but something doesn't add up.

The preferred stock deal with MSFT values the company at $15b 'internal valuation' that the shares were issued at is $4b. Aren't these supposed to be approximations of the same thing, roughly?

Does that means that they can't go public with a valuation lower then $15b?

That MSFT deal seems insane. Facebook would have to be an advertising powerhouse.

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Re:Facebook to let employees sell some stock — at internal $... by brianlash on Tuesday August 05, 2008 @03:18AM (#267255)

As I understand it the valuation at the time of the Microsoft deal was meaningless, at least as far as other shareholders go. Their move was based on an effort to "get into social networking," not a strategic long-term investment.

I could be wrong. But I think that's a believable story, especially in light of this news around FB's own (much lower) internal valuation.

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Re:Facebook to let employees sell some stock — at internal $... by netcan on Tuesday August 05, 2008 @04:20AM (#267301)

Makes sense. I guess they pay an evil premium.

But wouldn't they have something written into the deal that they can't sell the company at a valuation lower then the preferred stock price? Isn't that what preferred stock means.

I suppose that there would be no restrictions on buying at a lower valuation.

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