http://online.wsj.com/article/.....92163.html

Facebook Gets Big Investment
By Kevin J. Delaney and Vauhini Vara

The Samwer brothers of Europe have agreed to invest in social-networking site Facebook Inc., according to a spokesman for the brothers.

The size of the investment is roughly $10 million to $15 million, said a person familiar with the matter.

Bugün TechCrunch‘da çıkan ve Micheal Arrington‘un kesinlikle doğru olduğunu ancak henüz Facebook tarafından doğrulanmadığını bildirdiği yatırımın kaynağı olan European Founders Fund yakında Türkiye’de adını çok …

However, I see a significan chance, that FB buys StudiVZ after giving them a beating in the first months. That is if they want to grow very quickly in Europe. If they have more time before the IPO this will be not necessary. I am convinced that FB wins in the end.

This ist stunning: In an Interview

http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt.....12,00.html

Alexander Samwer explains that “FB is light years ahead of StudiVZ” (with regard to the technological perspective). Together with FB he will be openly competing against StudiVZ.

I wonder: Did he not foresee this situation when he sold StudiVZ to Holtzbrinck in Dec. 2006?

the 750 mil valuation is totally wrong.
Facebook wanted to buy studivz and offered a 4-6% share, which would be worth today about 750 mil. that’s all and that’s history.

StudiVZ is stuck to students and won’t succeed in opening itself to a broader target group. In addition to that the studivz infrastructure and management seems to be too old-fashioned to compete with fb.

Jon
http://buzvia.com - Share Influence

Fabian: Why does it not make sense for the Samwers? They already made a lot of money, now they compete against the businesses they co-founded together with the “largest gorilla in the jungle”. They may buy back StudiVZ for a discount (but still with a huge profit for Holtzbrinck - the Company was sold for 100 mil and is currently valued around 750 mil). Or they may simple sweep StudiVZ out of the market.

And the Samwers, they are also invested in Lokalisten.de which is a competitor of StudiVZ. Is this kind of investment strategy correct? Invest in two competing companies? Is this also common in the US? For Startups in Germany there are not a lot of alternatives to the Samwers as investors, but to me it looks like the Samwers are taking benefit of it. Would you sign an investor contract with the term that your investor can invest in your direct competitor?

Having the Samwers on board as an investor is one of the best things that can happen to a start-up in Germany - for companies that are built to sell, not necessarily to last.

Copying a company (together with an former intern), then selling it (knowing that the company does not have the technological potential as the original ?!) and then, after twelve months, aggressively competing against the very same company. I call this more than witty.

The Samwers know that StudiVZ will not be able to successfully compete against FB. They will crush the very same company that they made a fortune with and position themselves as Zuckerber’s governors in Europe. Thus, using the enormous traffic FB creates to fuel their other investments. What a smart move!

It’s a done deal all right.

I think you’ll find that any successful business person has shortcomings in one form or another. Look at Bill Gates. True, Samwers are probably better networkers and dealmakers than they are technology visionaries but at the end of the day they have an uncanny ability to make money and that is largely the reason most of us work instead of vacation all year.

This article says

http://faz-community.faz.net/b.....5/769.aspx

the Samwers get a discount for helping FB with its expansion in Europe.

Hence, these guys help crushing the business of their formerly owned FB copy StudiVZ (now owned by Holtzbrinck). I guess Holtzbrinck loves doing business with them in the future.

However, I see them more as dealmakers, not so much as innovative business people. Take a look at their track record at Jamba.

They startet StudiVZ with Ehssan Dariani, a man who was a previous FB intern. FB also took a deep look into buying StudiVZ in 2005 (presumably did not investo because of “security issues”). Now the same people that copied FB together with a former FB-intern get an opportunity to invest in the company. Why?

How about this: First the Samwers sold StudiVZ to Holtzbrinck for 100 mil. in Dec. 2005, then FB buys from Holtzbrinck to get a stronghold in the German market. Samwers have the connections and the reputation to mount such a remarkable deal.

When a recession comes, companies cut their expenses from online advertising first (it is still not as proven as traditional methods, or at least companies don’t see it that way), which will quickly blow holes in the business models of facebook, myspace, and other related websites.

It would interesting to hear from them what the problems are from their point of view with the German startup scene. Why have they made such few investments. Then again they specialize in making a localized (Germanic) version of a business that has been proven in a different market.