Facebok has raised more than $800 million over five rounds of funding. With this round, the social network will have raised more than $1.3 billion. The New York Times says that the deal sets the company's valuation at a whopping $50 billion. Facebook's worth has fluctuated between $40 billion and $50 billion in the secondary markets for the past few weeks. In September, Facebook was worth between $23 billion and $33 billion and in November it was worth $41 billion.
As part of the deal, Goldman Sachs will help Facebook raise an additional $1.5 billion. To do this, the investment bank will create a "special purpose vehicle" that will allow others to invest in Facebook indirectly. This would help Facebook bypass a S.E.C. regulation that requires companies with more than 499 investors to disclose their financial results to the public.
Goldman Sachs will be a first-time investor in Facebook, while Russian venture capital firm Digital Sky Technologies had previously invested $200 million in the company Mark Zuckerberg built at a $10 billion valuation. According to the NYT report, Goldman Sachs has the option to sell $75 million of its stake to DST.