Facebook Deal, business and finance homework help

• Facebook, as everyone pretty much knows now, rocketed to popularity starting in 2005 and

hasn’t looked back since. As you might expect from a highly successful, capital-intensive, hightech

operation that’s growing at blazing speeds, the company has gone through several rounds of

financing to finance business growth. We’re going to ask you to look at that financing and explain

to us what happened.

• Though a savvy researcher could find these transactions herself via Google if she truly wanted to,

we’ve gone ahead and pulled the big ones up for you in chronological order to save you some

time. We encourage you to investigate each of these further, however. There’s no shortage of

background on each of these. Here they are in nice news-bite capsules for digestion:

o The Facebook group announced that it has raised between $10 million to $12 million in

first-round financing led by Accel Partners on April 15, 2005. As a part of the transaction,

Jim Beyers, a Managing Partner at Accel Partners, joined the company’s board. The

post-money valuation of the company was $100 million.

o Facebook, Inc. announced that it has raised $27.5 million in its third round of funding led

by new investor Greylock Partners on April 19, 2006. New investor MeriTech Capital

Partners and existing investor Accel Partners invested in the transaction. The postmoney

valuation of the company was $525 million.

o Facebook, Inc. announced that it will raise $240 million in an equity round of funding from

new investor Microsoft Corporation on October 24, 2007. As a result of the transaction,

Microsoft Corporation will now hold 1.60% stake in the company. The round was raised

at a post-money valuation of $15,000 million.

o Facebook, Inc. announced that it has raised $200 million in funding from Digital Sky

Technologies Limited on May 26, 2009. Digital Sky Technologies Limited invested in

preferred stock and acquired 1.96% stake, valuing the company at $10 billion.

• So what really happened here? What were the major events surrounding and shaping these

investments? We want you to tell us the story of the business as it unfolded through these

massive transactions.

• In order to successfully complete this assignment, you’ll have to rely on your powers to navigate

the world-wide web and your ability to work backwards a bit. The information is out there if you

know how to look. Remember that until recently, this was a private company, so we can’t easily

verify estimates on these financial numbers. So, be sure to justify your thinking with plenty of

evidence from similar businesses and events.