Investment bank Goldman Sachs has reportedly invested $450m in social media company Facebook.
News provider New York Times said Goldman had invested $450m in Facebook, and Digital Sky Technologies (DST), a Russia-based investment firm backed by corporate venturing units run by Naspers and Tencent, invested $50m.
DST has previously invested about $500m in Facebook and Goldman has the right to sell part of its stake, up to $75m, to the Russian firm, the Times said.
As part of the deal, Goldman is expected to raise as much as $1.5bn from investors for Facebook at a $50bn valuation, and the investment bank might "be in a strong position to take Facebook public when it decides to do so in what is likely to be a lucrative and prominent deal", the Times added. Investing in preparation of a role in a portfolio company’s flotation has been a core reason behind corporate venturing among investment banks.
The round is the third $500m investment with corporations involved in as many weeks, following Groupon, another DST-backed business, raising $500m of a planned $950m round and China’s 360Buy gaining the same amount from a consortium including retailer Wal-Mart.
Goldman’s peer, Morgan Stanley, as well as mutual fund managers Fidelity and T Rowe Price were reported as backers of Groupon’s latest round.
News provider Business Insider said in previous deals Morgan Stanley had invested in social messaging company Twitter’s series D round, while Fidelity and T Rowe Price had backed Slide at a $500m valuation, before the company was acquired by search engine group Google for $182m.
Groupon had rejected Google’s reported $6bn offer for the company just before Christmas and will use $345m of the $500m it has just raised to pay its founders and shareholders.