Investor offer values Facebook at $6.5 bn

A Russian Internet company is offering to buy $100 million worth of stock from Facebook employees in a deal which values the fast-growing social network at $6.5 billion.        

The Russian company, Digital Sky Technologies (DST), which invested $200 million in Facebook in May, is offering $14.77 per share of Facebook common stock.        

The tender offer will close "some time in August," said Jennifer Gill, a DST spokeswoman.        

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg confirmed the DST offer. "While individuals must make their own decisions about participating in this program, I'm pleased that the price DST is offering is much greater than the price originally considered last fall," Zuckerberg said in a statement.        

"This is recognition of Facebook's growth and progress towards making the world more open and connected," he added.        

At the time it purchased a nearly two percent equity stake in Facebook, DST said it would be purchasing at least $100 million of common stock held by current and former Facebook employees.         

DST's purchase of a 1.96 per cent stake in preferred stock in privately held Facebook, the largest cash-raising exercise by the Palo Alto, California-based company in two years, valued the company at $10 billion.