Posted: Wed., May 27, 2009, 9:31am PT

Russian investor backs Facebook

DSK takes $200 million stake in website

MOSCOW -- Russia's biggest Internet investment company, Digital Sky Technologies, has put its faith in social networking site Facebook with a $200 million investment.

The share purchase -- which gives DST a 1.96% stake -- values Facebook's preferred stock at $10 billion.

The investment comes at a time when the social networking platform has been seeking to refute growing sentiment in the market that the company is overvalued.

DST, which counts Alisher Usmanov, the Russian metals magnate and billionaire, among its backers, was set up four years ago.

Among its 30 investments in Russia and Eastern Europe, DST runs Mail.ru -- Russia's largest Internet portal, which is as popular in Russia as gmail is in the West.

Much of Facebook's recent growth has come from international users, where turning numbers into revenue is more difficult than in the U.S., but chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday the site had been in profit for the past five quarters and expected revenue growth this year of 70%.




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