Facebook Investment

This one is pure rumour so far as it is coming from none other than... Fake Steve Jobs.  Anyway, he says that facebook also took an additional $500 million (on top of Microsoft's $240 million investment) from two hedge funds.  Lets wait and see if it is fact or fiction...developing

Yesterday the rumour mill was finally silenced when Microsoft and facebook announced the $240 Million investment in facebook.  Microsoft's money buys them a 1.6% stake in facebook and gives them international advertising rights until 2011 on facebook's non-usa sites.  What non-usa sites you may ask?  Well, facebook appears to be working hard at getting non-English versions of facebook ready for launch in the near future. 

The Wall Street Journal Online reports that Google was still trying to get the deal up until the last minute.  

The amount invested is far less than the 500 - 900 million dollars that was rumoured but the valuation was rumoured to be between 10 and 15 billion dollars.  This transaction places a $15 Billion valuation on facebook now.  

We think this is a good move by facebook to get some cash in the bank and focus on bringing the property to profitability.  Mr. Zuckerberg has done an amazing job this far, now he has the dosh and Microsoft behind him to continue into the stratusphere.  Lets see if he can deliver.  We sure hope so! 

This just in from Center Networks, they report that all developers that have submitted ideas to be funded by the fbfund, need to re-submit them. Here is the note that the developers got from fbfund:

"Thank you for your inquiry about the fbFund grant program, and for your support of the Facebook Platform. Our goal for this program is to encourage as many developers as possible to write innovative and engaging new applications on top of Facebook Platform. Additionally, we hope to enable an even broader class of developers to become entrepreneurs by giving you the financial resources necessary to pursue a new venture that relies on Facebook Platform.

It has become clear that we will receive proposals which contain similar or even identical ideas. As a result, and in order to protect other developers and us from claims that we or anyone else copied material without the creator's permission, unless we agree otherwise in writing, we can't promise that any materials or information you submit here will be kept confidential, or specifically that we or others might not develop similar or identical products or services.

To make sure that everyone understands the conditions of submitting a grant application, we will not review any materials you have sent via email, and any materials you may have sent have been deleted. If you would like to submit an application for an fbFund grant or require more information, please see our website and grant application submission form at http://www.facebook.com/developers/fbfund.php. We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope the online information and submission form will help you develop and structure your proposal. We are accepting applications from around the world.

Again, we are very excited to be offering this program and wish you the best of luck whether or not you are an fbFund grant recipient. We can only give a limited number of grants and not getting one does not mean that we don’t believe in your application nor that it can’t be successful - it simply means that we have a limited amount of resources and weren’t able to give money during this cycle to you. You are welcome to apply as many times as you like as each funding cycle represents a new opportunity to receive a grant.

More information is available at
http://www.facebook.com/developers/fbfund.php.

Thank you for your patience - we apologize for the delay in this response. We've seen a tremendous response to fbFund, and look forward to reviewing great proposals.

Cheers,
the fbFund team"