How’s this for a status update: Facebook is now worth $50 billion.
The social network raised another $450 million from Goldman Sachs and $50 million from a Russian firm, according to Dealbook -- investments that put the value of the company at the $50 billion figure.
To put this in perspective, Facebook’s new valuation means the company is worth more than publicly-traded Yahoo ($21.9 billion), Time Warner ($35.9B) and News Corp. ($43.7B), at least on paper.
But Facebook's new high-water mark still places the company far behind Google ($192.7 billion) and Apple, which surpassed the $300 billion mark on Monday.
Media Company Market Caps
Apple | $302.79B
Google | $192.72B
Disney | $71.86B
News Corp. | $43.68B
Time Warner | $35.87B
Yahoo | $21.89B
Netflix | $9.32B
AOL | $2.55B
New York Times Company | $1.44B
SOURCE: Yahoo/Finance, Jan. 3, 2011
It's not just Facebook capitalizing on the new media bubble. In December, for instance, Twitter completed a $200 million round of financing at a valuation of $3.7 billion.
Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian investment firm “that has already sunk about half a billion dollars into Facebook,” invested $50 million to bring the latest round of Facebook financing to an even $500 million.
As the report notes, the latest cash infusion comes as the Securities and Exchange Commission has “begun an inquiry into the increasingly hot private market for shares in Internet companies.”
Meanwhile, talk of a Facebook I.P.O. continues. Despite founder Mark Zuckerberg’s public comments downplaying such talk, people watching the Silicon Valley startup think Facebook will go public sometime next year.
