Facebook valued at $94 bln in auction of shares on private market

Singapore Star (ANI) Sunday 5th February, 2012

Social networking site Facebook had a valuation of at least 94 billion dollars in a recent auction of its shares on the private market.

Yesterday, 100,000 shares of Facebook traded on a private exchange at 40 dollars a piece, according to SharesPost, a company that matches buyers and sellers of stock in closely held companies.

The price implies that Facebook is worth about 94 billion dollars. That's a jump from where shares had been trading. Just two weeks ago, in another auction, Facebook fetched 34 dollars a share, The New York Post reports.

According to the report, the social networking site is expected to raise up to 10 billion dollars through its share offering at a valuation approaching 100 billion dollars.

Facebook recently filed its IPO documents, providing investors with an incentive to pick up stock before an expected spike on the opening day of trading.

At the same time, existing Facebook shareholders, including employees, are motivated to sell before a lock-up period is implemented following the public debut.

According to the paper, Facebook one billion dollars in profit on 3.7 billion dollars in revenue last year.

At 41 percent, Facebook's tax rate is well above the top US corporate income tax rate of 35 percent. (ANI)