New funding from Goldman and Digital Sky values Facebook at $50 billion: report

Facebook has raised $500 million in a new round of funding from Goldman Sachs and Russia's Digital Sky Technologies (DST), valuing the world's popular social networking site at $50 billion, according to yesterday report from Dealbook.

The new valuation makes Palo Alto, California-based Facebook worth more than companies like Yahoo, e-Bay and Time Warner, said the report.

Goldman Sachs, the global investment banking and securities firm has invested $450 million, while Moscow-based Internet-investment group, DST, majority owned by Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov has invested a further $50 million in Facebook.

DST had acquired around $200 million worth of Facebook stock in May 2009 and followed it up by acquiring an additional stock worth $100 million in July, in a deal that valued the fast-growing s social networking site at $6.5 billion (See: Digital Sky's stock purchase values Facebook at $6.5 billion). 

As part of the deal, Dealbook, citing people involved in the discussions said that Goldman is expected to raise as much as $1.5 billion from investors for Facebook at the $50 billion valuation.

Started as a web service Thefacebook.com when founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was a 19-year old sophomore at Harvard University in 2004, Facebook's phenomenal popularity has made Zuckerberg one of the world's youngest billionaires and his privately held company is projected to have 2010 revenues of $2 billion, according to Time.