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Why Russian investment firm; Digital Sky Technologies (DST) of Yuri Milner (Mail.ru) offers Facebook $200 million?
By Amarendra Bhushan for CEOWORLD Magazine Updated:May 25, 2009
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A Russian investment firm has offered to invest $200 million in preferred stock of Facebook, the closely held social-networking site, at a valuation of $10 billion, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal.
Facebook, which has more than 200 million active users, has been seeking to raise money via venture capital or private equity to help it grow and has received a number of proposals, the Journal reported.
RUSSIAN internet group Digital Sky Technologies, run by the investor Yuri Milner, invests in Internet businesses and owns Russia’s largest web site, Mail.ru, the Journal reported.
Digital Sky also offered to buy $100 million to $150 million of Facebook common stock at a $6.5 billion valuation, the people told the Journal. Facebook would use those funds to buy out the shares held by some of its employees, the Journal reported.
Under the terms of DST’s proposed deal, they are prepared to buy between $100 million and $150 million in Facebook common stock at a $6.5 billion valuation. The amount would likely be used to buy up Facebook employees’ company shares.
A focus on Digital Sky Technologies?
Digital Sky Technologies (DST) is a leading global Internet holding company that originated in the Russian speaking world. We estimate that our companies comprise well over 70% of all pageviews in the Russian speaking Internet, targeting a potential audience of over 300 million people.
- One of the largest pure play Internet investors globally
- Leader in the Russian Internet and beyond
- Raised and invested over $1bn in capital
- Backed by Russian and Western Funds
- Founded in 2005 by Yuri Milner and Gregory Finger
DST is run by its three partners who have a strong complementary background from operations, investments and finance.
Yuri Milner – CEO and Founding Partner
Yuri Milner is CEO and Founding Partner of DST. At DST, Yuri led the investments in over two dozen leading Internet companies and raised over $1bn in 8 rounds of financing. Currently, Yuri serves on the board of directors of Mail.ru, vKontakte and Forticom.
Before DST, Yuri held various management positions in Russia, including the CEO of Mail.ru between 2001 and 2003, where he turned the company around operationally and positioned it to become the #1 Russian speaking website.
In 1990 to 1992 Yuri attended Wharton Business School and subsequently joined the World Bank where he was involved in the development of the financial sector in Russia.
He returned to Russia in 1996 and was responsible for the first tender offer for a public company in post Soviet times. Yuri subsequently started investing in the Internet sector in 1999.
Yuri graduated from Moscow State University in 1985 with an advanced degree in theoretical physics and was subsequently conducting research at the Institute of physics in the Russian Academy of Sciences between 1985 and 1989.
Gregory Finger – President and Founding Partner
Gregory Finger is President and Founding Partner of DST where he has participated in numerous high profile investments in leading Internet companies. Gregory is also Chairman of the Board of Astrum Online, the market leading MMOG Company in the Russian speaking world and serves on the boards of Mail.ru and Headhunter.ru.
Between 1992 and 2005 Gregory was the head of the Moscow office of New Century Holdings, the largest Western financial investor in the Russian speaking and Eastern Europe markets. At NCH, Gregory worked with over 15 investment funds with his latest fund having $3bn in assets under management. Gregory also made the first Internet investments on behalf of NCH, which was an early investor in Mail.ru.
Gregory graduated with honors from the Moscow Institute of Chemical Engineering (1988) with a specialization in automated control systems
Alexander Tamas – Partner
Alexander Tamas joined DST as a Partner in 2008 and established a presence for DST in London from where he is spearheading some of DST’s international efforts. Alexander serves on the Board of Forticom, one of the largest social networking companies globally, and on the Board of Mail.ru.
Prior to DST, Alexander worked in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs in London where he was responsible for numerous technology and Internet IPOs in Europe and Russia, mergers and acquisitions in the Internet and software sectors and fundraisings for high-growth companies across Europe.
Before Goldman Sachs, Alexander co-founded Arma Partners and helped to build it to one of Europe’s leading independent technology m&a advisory firms with a presence in London and Silicon Valley.
Alexander holds a BA form the Catholic University of Eichstaett and a MA in Business, Finance and Accounting from the Goethe University, Frankfurt.
Its Portfolio companies:
1) @Mail.ru
Mail.ru is the leading web-portal in the Russian speaking world.
2) Forticom
Forticom Group is one of the world’s largest social networking companies, and the owner and operator of the leading social networks Russia / CIS (Odnoklassniki.ru), Poland (Nasza-Klasa.pl), the Baltics (One.lv, One.lt), and other markets.
3) vkontakte.ru
Vkontakte.ru is a leading social network in the Russian speaking world with over 34 million registered users.
4) Astrum Online Entertainment
Astrum Online Entertainment is the largest developer and operator of MMO games in Russia operating more than 30 MMO game titles.
5) HeadHunter
HeadHunter.ru is the #1 Russian job site, providing recruitment classifieds and related services to job seekers and Corporate Customers.
6) CED
Center For Economic Development operates the leading Russian e-commerce platforms that allow small, medium and large enterprises to effectively engage in online trading.
7) OE Investments
OE Investments is the largest Russian operator of electronic payments and owns two leading payment systems, OSMP and E-port. It also owns related assets that diversify the services offered, namely Direct Contact, a payment on-terminal advertising system, and the Mobile Wallet company, a mobile payment application operator.
In addition to these investments, DST is also invested in over 20 other Internet and Internet related companies.
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concerned on Mon, 8th Feb 2010 1:19 pm
DST = FSB/GRU/KGB Big Brother Company ?
concerned on Mon, 8th Feb 2010 8:19 pm
DST = FSB/GRU/KGB Big Brother Company ?
mitchdcba on Wed, 28th Apr 2010 5:57 am
Russians generally subscribe to attitudes that promote equality, reciprocity and mutual advantage in business and a “deal” is often regarded as an opportunity for equally shared benefit.
doing business in russia