Elevation Partners buys additional stake in Facebook
29 Jun 2010
Private- equity firm, Elevation Partners LP has bought additional stake worth $120 million in Facebook from private investors, valuing the social networking site founded and run by Mark Zuckerberg at $23 billion.
Online publication site TechCrunch reported today that Elevation Partners bought the stake from insiders on the secondary market and with this investment, the private equity firm's stake in Facebook has gone up to $210 million. It had bought 2.5 million shares for $90 million in December 2009.
New York City and California-based Elevation Partners, whose founders include Bono, the lead singer of the musical group U2, and Roger McNamee, has $1.9 billion of assets under management.
TechCrunch noted that Elevation Partners' managing director and co-founder Marc Bodnick is the brother-in-law of Facebook operating chief Sheryl Sandberg.
Facebook, the world's most popular social-network site with about 500 million users has attracted investment from many firms although it is said to be choosey about its investors.
Moscow-based Internet-investment group, Digital Sky Technologies had purchased a 1.96-per cent stake in Facebook worth around $200 million in May 2009, a deal which valued the company at $10 billion (See: Digital Sky deal values Facebook at $10 billion). It was the company's biggest cash-raising operation in two years. It followed up the purchase by buying $100 million worth of stock from Facebook's employees in July.