Just in from a source involved with the transaction – the $100 million Facebook Employee share buyback has been oversubscribed (its not clear by how much), and ex-employees are being cut back significantly.
The program was announced on July 13. Up to $100 million in employee common stock was to be purchased by Russian investment group Digital Sky Technologies, which also funded a separate $200 million venture investment in May 2009. Employees, ex-employees and other common stockholders could participate, and had to indicate their intention to sell by early August.
People were limited to selling up to the lesser of 25% of their total holdings or $1 million. Shares are being purchased based on a $6.5 billion valuation.
Employees were given first dibs on stock sales, we’ve confirmed. Ex-employees were notified up front that they’d be able to sell only after current employees. And it turns out it made a difference – the ex-employees were cut back to “a small fraction” of the original amount requested. Some executives and larger shareholders may be able to sell additional stock via a separate arrangement, says our source.
Facebook declined to comment on this post.
I’m guessing that after the sale goes through Facebook is going to be looking for a few new employees …
…and i’m guessing that about $100 million is going to be hitting the silicon valley real estate markets shortly as all these people buy houses.
LOL … no more stimulus packages Congress … just call up Mark to work something out!
Dumping 25% of your equity would be a no brainer for diversification purposes. Unless of course your Facebook equity is insignificant compared to your net worth.
or the russian mafia.
Okay, so that’s about 100 houses split out over 10 cities… 10 houses in Sunnyvale, 10 in Palo Alto… yawn.
You’re missing the multiplier effect this would have on the (local) economy
…all of 12 properties this would get you.
..and Bay Area foreclosure rate will drop?
Mini Valley stimulus plan. $100 mil goes a lot further than it did 24 months ago
Dream big facebook employees – but don’t all run and go create start-ups
its unreal that insiders are buying the company at 6.5 billion
last i heard thats -30x cash flow.
If they were smart they would have given ex-employees first dibs on the sale. Allowing current employees to lower their amount of shares makes them less interested in staying with the company and working their a$$ off.
that’s a great way of pushing your current employee to become ex-employee.
yea, that’s a great strategy. your an evil genius, john.
But giving it to anyone else first would’ve just made them bitter and also less interested in staying with the company and working their a$$ off
Probably s/t capital gains too.
one million dollars buy a pretty awful house in the valley so I guess it would be great for East Palo Alto
Hahaha
Did you say East Palo Alto?
Wow Mark really knows how to stick it to ex-employees like nobody’s business.
fortunately everyone gets to keep at least 75% because the price is only gonna go up!
)
Seems that insiders feel that $6.5 Billion is a big valuation since they are cashing out. I would not hold my breath that is is going to go pasts 6.5 for sometime. I wonder how the folks at Microsoft feel about the deal/valuation..
hey at least those foolios got stock. UNLIKE MYSPACE.
I seriously fail to see how this is ’sticking it’ to the ex-employees. They were never promised this in the first place; to get any part of the deal underway is beneficial to them.
The demand is there, why not extend it to other investors at the same valuation? There’s a lot of hard working people who put in time at FB who are overlooked with this deal. Additionally, if you believe what you read in court filings Mark doesn’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to doing what’s right for his co-founders and partners.
I’d gladly buy some of the ex employees Stock rights.
I think that it’s the “ex-employees” that may get the last laugh on this if Facebook ever goes public.
Yeah, I’d buy some shares too.
Hypothetically, who wants to buy my FB shares at a $10 billion valuation with a minimum of 5,000 shares? We can move this to SharesPost.com.
The impact of $100 million on the local real estate market is zero. Someone commented that’s 100 houses in 10 cities (Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, …). No, actually that’s 100 garages. Or about 20 homes if you are talking about real homes. What’s 20 homes? Not a big impact.
Good ‘ol Facebook