Russian investment company DST to invest in popular social start-ups with investment banks

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"TechWeb Report" January 4, according to foreign media reports, Russian investment company DST founder Yuri Milner (Yuri Milner) hired Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley analysts to help them pick Facebook and Zynga such valuable investment targets. Mr Milner is now working with these investment banks to increase investment in Silicon Valley's social media.

According to people familiar with the matter, DST and Goldman Sachs have invested 500 million of billions of dollars in Facebook, the latter valued at $50 billion trillion. Groupon is planning to raise $950 million trillion from DST and Morgan Stanley in a new round of fundraising. "DST's investments in Facebook, Groupon and Zynga are doing very well, and Goldman Sachs and others want to profit from it," said Nick Beim, partner of Matrix partners at VC companies.

By investing hundreds of millions of of dollars in social media, DST is at the forefront of Silicon Valley's fastest-growing market. DST's investments have spurred the company's valuations to rise and attract new potential investors. Morgan Keegan & Co analyst Peter Falvey, a venture capital company, said they were unusually active in the face of some fast-growing Internet companies. So far, they have proved to be very shrewd. If DST now throws money at these companies, then more people will follow.

Mr Milner said in an interview last year that many of the analysts employed by DST came from Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup. According to two people familiar with the matter, Goldman has been sold to its high-end clients by Brigadier General Facebook's $1.5 billion worth of $450 million worth of investment. DST has invested 50 million of dollars this time.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, has said the company's IPO will be postponed until 2012, as it hopes to continue to develop. The company last year sold about $2 billion trillion, with 2009 sales between $700 million and $800 million trillion. In May 2009, DST invested $200 million in Facebook, a social networking site valued at $10 billion trillion. DST subsequently expanded its holdings by buying common stock.

Facebook's valuations now exceed the market capitalisation of Yahoo and ebay, reaching 25 times times the company's 2010 revenue. DST is also reaching out to other popular startups, such as Groupon, a group-buying website and Zynga, a social gaming website. (Blue and blue)