Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies (DST) has begun buying more shares in Facebook, seeking to expand its stake in the world’s No. 1 social networking company, two sources said.
DST has begun purchasing shares directly from Facebook’s shareholders, two people familiar with the deal said on Thursday on condition of anonymity.
“Their appetite with me is: ‘Whatever you have, we’ll take it,’” said one of the sources, a Facebook shareholder who agreed to sell his stock to Digital Sky.
The shareholder said DST is offering US$14.77 a share, the same price paid in July when it bought US$100 million of Facebook shares from the social networking site’s employees and ex-employees, at a US$6.5 billion valuation.
Facebook employees received priority to sell shares to DST in July, while ex-employees were limited to selling roughly 29 percent of their intended amount given the high demand for the tender offer.
The source said that he believed DST’s agreement with Facebook prevents it from soliciting further shares from Facebook employees and that the firm must now acquire stock from shareholders not employed by Facebook.
DST also invested US$200 million in Facebook preferred shares in May. The two transactions gave DST a 3.5 percent stake in the company.
A second source familiar with the matter said that DST could buy up to US$100 million of additional Facebook shares, though that amount had not been finalized.
“They’re well along the way,” the second source said.
Representatives for Facebook and DST were not available for comment.
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