The Cost Of FriendFeed: Roughly $50 Million In Cash And Stock
Warning: fopen(/home/playerc/public_html/upoff.com/wp-content/db-config.ini) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /home/playerc/public_html/upoff.com/wp-content/db.php on line 613
Warning: fopen(/home/playerc/public_html/upoff.com/wp-content/db-config.ini) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /home/playerc/public_html/upoff.com/wp-content/db.php on line 613
Warning: fopen(/home/playerc/public_html/upoff.com/wp-content/db-config.ini) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /home/playerc/public_html/upoff.com/wp-content/db.php on line 613
Warning: fopen(/home/playerc/public_html/upoff.com/wp-content/db-config.ini) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /home/playerc/public_html/upoff.com/wp-content/db.php on line 613
Everyone is obviously talking about the Facebook/FriendFeed deal, but everyone wants to know one key detail: How much did Facebook pay? Now we know: Facebook paid nearly $50 million when you add the $15 million it paid in cash with roughly $32.5 million (based on current valuations) in stock, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The stock is the key part of this deal. It’s value is derived from the $6.5 billion common valuation after a recent investment by the Russian investment group DST in the company. But what’s really interesting about these stock options is that these are options that vest over a set period of time, just as employees in the company get. Compared to the Parakey deal in July 2007, in which the company got only cash and no stock, this seems like a pretty nice deal (assuming of course that Facebook’s stock eventually pans out).
Another interesting question about this is what Benchmark Capital, FriendFeed’s investor, got. It’s certainly possible that they’re taking the cash, while the FriendFeed employees take the stock. Benchmark invested a small part of its $5 million round in early 2008, so a $15 million exit would be pretty solid. But that’s all just speculation, it’s hard to know what Benchmark is getting for sure.
What else is interesting about this $50 million number is that it is 1/10th of what Facebook was apparently willing to pay for Twitter late last year. The big hold up in that deal was that Facebook was offering mostly stock, while Twitter wanted cash.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0











