Facebook has raised $500 million from Goldman Sachs and Russian Internet investment group Digital Sky Technologies in a deal valuing the social networking site at $50 billion (€37.4 billion)
A report in the New York Times said that Goldman has invested $450 million and Digital Sky Technologies, which has already invested about half a billion dollars in Facebook, put in an additional $50 million.
Facebook and Digital Sky Technologies could not be reached for comment. Goldman was not available for comment outside regular US business hours.
Goldman is planning to create a special purpose vehicle to allow its high-net worth clients to invest in Facebook, the paper reported.
It has the right to sell a part of its stake, up to $75 million, to Digital Sky Technologies, the paper said.
The website surpassed Google as the most visited website in the US this year, highlighting the rapid ascendance of social networking over search engines and Internet portals.
Facebook received 8.9 per cent of all US Web visits between January and November 2010, according to New York-based Internet tracker Experian Hitwise.
Google's main site was second with 7.2 per cent, followed by Yahoo! Inc.'s Mail service, Yahoo's Web portal and Google's YouTube.
Facebook, founded by 26-year-old Mark Zuckerberg in 2004, has more than 500 million users.
The site's leadership in social networking has attracted advertisers such as Coca-Cola Co. and JPMorgan Chase and Co., letting Facebook reach sales of about $2 billion this year, according to people familiar with the matter.
"Facebook could be a bigger IPO than Google," said Tom Taulli, an independent researcher on initial public offerings.
Google was the most visited site in the US in 2008 and 2009, and it still holds the top position when accounting for all of the company's sites, including the YouTube video site.
Agencies