Facebook now valued at $50 billion after Goldman, Russian investor sink $500 million into it

[Generic Other]

The investment makes the social networking site potentially worth more than several Fortune 500 companies, including aerospace titans Boeing and Lockheed Martin, which investors valued at around $48 billion and $25 billion, and retail giant Target, which is valued at about $43 billion.

In the media and tech industries, Facebook's new valuation is worth more than eBay, Time Warner and Yahoo, but doesn't approach rival Google, which is valued at $193 billion.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/01/03/2011-01-03_facebook_now_valued_at_50_billion_after_goldman_russian_investor_sink_500_millio.html#ixzz1A01ODsB5

[frazzled]

1. Do you smell a bubble about to burst?

First Google wants to buy Groupon (Groupon!) for $6 billion. Now Goldman Sachs investing in Facebook, valued at $50 billion.

When will they ever learn?

[Poll_Blind]

2. For every investor who learns there's always one coming onto the scene who...

...doesn't have a clue.

PB

[subterranean]

4. What they've learned:

Goldman Sachs and other big Wall Street banks have learned that they can inflate gigantic speculative bubbles and rake in huge bonuses with virtually no risk because they know the government will bail them out when the bubble inevitably implodes. They walk away with all the money and stick American taxpayers with the bill.

[KillCapitalism]

3. Who determines what these sites are worth?

It's a large social networking site, but no way could it be worth as much as Ford Motors or Apple.

$50 bil. just seems like a number they pulled out of their assholes. You could probably even pull a bigger number out of your ass like $20 trillion & people would not question it.

[MilesColtrane]

6. That comes down to an investment of $100 per each of Facebook's active users.

That's a real bargain to find out what that many people are thinking and talking about.

What would most big companies pay for real time access to the largest focus group in the world?

While the investors aren't using Facebook as a marketing tool (that we know of) they are betting that a boatload of other companies will fork over cash to Zuckerberg for access.

[gristy]

9. My guess is that Goldman Sachs got 1% of the company for that $500M

That makes the company worth $500M/.01 = $50B. Prety straightforward.

[Lucian]

5. If I were Zuckerberg, I'd sell now while it's still hot.

I'd get my billions of dollars and run away. The site won't be worth much for long. People will find something different to flock to. They always do.

And btw, this makes me nervous that large corporations are investing millions of dollars into facebook. What are they getting out of it? Our personal info? Or something more?

[DemoTex]

7. Reminds me of "You Can't Go Home Again" by Thomas Wolfe

This is similar to the rampant financial & real estate speculation that drove the wedge between Thomas Wolfe and his mother.

[Javaman]

8. A sad statement...

Walmart, which sells plastic chinese imported crap, is the #1 business in America. In 1968, it was GM and AT&T. Really sad when you give it any thought. A company that produces nothing.

Now we have facebook. And now it beats out Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Like them or not, they still produce things. Facebook produces what, exactly? Eliminates privacy?

Sigh. I'm old and getting older by the second.

We are a sad nation of self obsessed fools.