Facebook's Value Declines Slightly to $98 Billion in Private Market Sale  

8:00 AM PST 2/16/2012 by Georg Szalai

Comments

Ahead of the planned IPO of the social network, led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, a sale of company stock on the secondary market draws nearly 5 percent less than the previous sale.  

NEW YORK - Facebook's implied value declined by nearly 5 percent to $98 billion in the latest private market sale of company stock, Bloomberg News reported.

Mark Zuckerberg May Sell $1.67 Billion in Facebook Stock

Facebook Doesn't 'Like' Female Board Members

 Ahead of the social network giant's IPO, which is expected by mid-year, an auction of shares held by a fund  went for 42 apiece, Bloomberg said, citing data from SharesPost, a private-stock marketplace.  

Last week, SharesPost handled an auction of 150,000 shares of Facebook’s Class B common stock for $44 each, giving the social network an implied value of $102.6 billion.   Observers said that one can't directly deduct a public-market value for a company from private-market stock sales.  

Facebook, led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, filed for an IPO on Feb. 1. It is expected to value the firm at$75 billion-$100 billion.  Facebook's private-market value rose about 73 percent last year to $71.2 billion, according to a report by research firm Nyppex.   

A spokesman for Facebook declined to comment, Bloomberg said.

Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com

Twitter: @georgszalai