It's done, Facebook, the social network founded and directed by Mark Zuckerberg is launched on the Nasdaq electronic stock exchange platform. The social network's stock is finally at the high price of 38 dollars (30 euros). For this introduction - the largest for value in the new technology sector - Facebook raises 16 billion dollars (12.6 billion euros). The group is valued at $104 billion (€82 billion).
And this, eight years after the creation of the website in a Harvard student's room.
"We don't build services to make money, we make money to build better services," said the Facebook boss.
The Facebook galaxy is therefore valued at 82 billion euros. That's more than the giants Hewlett-Packard, Canon, Amazon or Cisco Systems, and not so far from Google. These figures should be compared with the first results provided by the company since its creation in 2004. At the end of April, the social network, which now has more than 900 million users, published a net profit down 10 % for the first quarter, at 137 million dollars (107 million euros). Its revenues, on the other hand, increased by 45 %, passing the $1 billion mark in quarterly revenues.
The arrival of the social network on the markets is going to make people happy, especially among its early shareholders.
- Mark Zuckerberg (co-founder and CEO): 24% or $24 billion. At 27 years old, he should become one of the ten richest people on the planet. His wealth is estimated at over $24 billion. Enough to slash his salary, because if he had received $1.5 million in 2011, one-third of which would have been a fixed salary, his paycheck will be reduced to a dollar by 2013.
-• Digital Sky Technologies10%, or $10 billion. Digital Sky technology was accompanied in its investment by the American bank Goldman Sachs, which has approximately 3% of the shares, having invested $450 million in January 2011. Founded in 2005, this Russian company has become one of the most influential players in Web 2.0. Two men are behind the company: Alisher Usmanov and Yuri Milner. The first is a shareholder of the English club Arsenal with 27%, while the second is at the head of mail.ru, the portal concentrating 70% of Russian Internet traffic.
- Accel Partners: 9% or $10 billion. This investment fund had "sniffed out" the right deal as early as 2005. with an investment of $13 million. This is one of the most profitable moves in the history of finance since the company owns about 9% of Facebook, or $10 billion based on the current valuation. Accel Partners is also present in the shareholdings of other digital start-ups, including Groupon and Spotify.
- Dustin Moskovitz (co-founder): 6% or $6 billion.
- Eduardo Savarin (co-founder): 5% or $5 billion. The former marketing manager, ousted in 2005, claimed 30% from the social network until the case was settled in court.. The former Harvard resident was paid a secret sum of money following the signing of a non-disclosure clause.
- Sean Parker (founder of Napster): 4% or $4 billion. Napster's co-founder holds 4% of the company's capital.after having been the éminence grise and its president for the first year. Parker's influence is not the same today, particularly following his arrest for cocaine possession in 2005. In any case, he had helped to attract some prestigious investors.
- Peter Thiel (Clarium Capital): 3% or $3 billion. He was one of the first heavyweights to believe in Mark Zuckerberg's project.... The co-founder of PayPal, at the head of the investment fund Clarium Capital, had contributed the sum of 500,000 dollars for 3% of Facebook's capital. Its valuation is estimated at three billion dollars, with a place on the board of directors as a bonus. This "business angel" is known to have invested early in some of the now famous start-ups: LinkedIn, Slide, IronPort...
- Microsoft: 1.6% or $1.6 billion. The group invested $240 million as of October 2007. This strategic alliance had enabled Facebook to be valued at nearly $15 billion, while the network was just beginning its breakthrough outside the United States. The agreement was negotiated under very difficult conditions. (detailed by journalist David Kirkpatrick in The Facebook Revolution). It provides for an exclusive partnership in which the Redmond firm makes large profits from the sale of advertising.
- Bono (Elevation Partners): 1.5% or $1.5 billion. The anti-globalization singer of the Irish band U2, is decidedly very active in the markets. Beside its 1.5% in Facebook, the Elevation Parners fund (named after the song Elevation released in 2001) is also in the capital of Palm and the Forbes Medias group .
And Facebook employees are shareholders in 30%, or $30 billion.
(Source: Huffington post 2012)
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