YourFacebookStuff

Facebook may have talked a few investors, including Microsoft, Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing and Germany’s Samwer brothers, into investing in the company’s preferred stockat a $15 billion valuation.

But that’s a hard number to justify given Facebook’s revenue projections and comparisons to other big networks, and a lot of people think it’s vastly overvalued at that price. And at least one stockholder is quietly looking to sell some stock at a value significantly lower than that $15 billion.

It’s probably more than one, actually. We’ve been chasing rumors (none confirmed) for months that some vested non-exec employees have been trying to sell common stock, that some early VCs are trying to move preferred stock, and even that founder Mark Zuckerberg explored selling some stock at a $6 billion valuation.

Now, though, we’ve got our hands on a smoking gun of sorts. Bill Dagley, the Managing Director at a firm that manages money for high net worth individuals called Private Wealth Partners in Larkspur, California, has been sending out feelers to venture capitalists and wealthy individuals who may be interested in buying stock from a Facebook shareholder at a value far less than $15 billion.

We’ve been forwarded one email conversation from a source, where Dagley asks if they’d be interested in “buying shares of Facebook from current holder?” Another person who was approached said the asking price was $3-$4 billion. A third source says the total amount of stock being sold is around $30 million.

The seller was never disclosed, but it’s likely a current or ex-Facebook exec who wasn’t required to sign special agreements with investors during the venture rounds. That likely means they can theoretically sell their stock once it’s vested and paid for.

Everyone we’ve talked to has turned down the offer, although it’s my guess that there are buyers at this price. Heck, I’m in for at least one share.

If you’re interested in Facebook at that price, give Dagley a call. I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to hear from you.

Via: Washington Post

The financial sector, eager to befriend the large and coveted Gen Y demographic, hopes a presence on Facebook will make it seem cool.  

The 20-somethings who were there first aren’t all keen on the idea.

Call it hip, sophomoric, or just lame, big names in banking, like JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Washington Mutual Inc., are trying to harness the trend-setting, word-spreading, 70-million-active users power of the social networking Web site. Charlotte-based Wachovia Corp. says it’s open to getting on Facebook, and Bank of America Corp. has set up an Olympics-related page.

On the surface, tapping into Facebook’s reach seems like a potent marketing strategy, a way to meet young people — and lots of them — on their own turf. Facebook is one of the 10 most-visited Web sites in the country, according to Hitwise. It’s so ubiquitous it’s become a verb. Politicians, nonprofits and rock bands have profiles there, and big corporate brands such as Coke, Saturn and Crest sponsor ads. Other companies, such as Ernst & Young, use it for recruiting.

But those successes don’t guarantee that Gen Y-ers will want to be online friends with their neighborhood bank. After all, cancer walks are more inspiring than home equity loans, and a blogging band is cooler than a blogging bank. Continue Reading »

Facebook plans open-source platform to assist application developers.  Facebook said that as the new Platform continues to mature, open sourcing the infrastructure behind it is a natural step so developers can build richer social applications and share what they’ve learned with the ecosystem.

Facebook has announced it will make its third-party developer platform open source which could be a huge step toward breaking down the wall between its site and the rest of the web.

“We’re working on an open-source initiative that is meant to help application developers better understand Facebook Platform and more easily build applications, whether it’s by running their own test servers, building tools, or optimizing their applications. As Facebook Platform continues to mature, open-sourcing the infrastructure behind it is a natural step so developers can build richer social applications and share what they’ve learned with the ecosystem. Additional details will be released soon,” a spokesperson said.

Applications developed on the Facebook Platform would be compatible with any social network that maps its application programming interfaces (APIs) to Facebook.

Facebook has been sending out mixed signals after cutting off Google’s Friend Connect, but it also just announced a feature called Facebook Connect, which lets users access their Facebook identity on any site.

Google Inc. is expected to shed light on its own social technologies such as Google App Engine, for building and hosting Web applications, and OpenSocial, the Google-backed application programming interface (API) for social networking. Continue Reading »