General Atlantic agreed to buy a stake in Facebook, valuing the social-networking company at about $65 billion dollars, CNBC’s David Faber reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.
The purchase of 2.5 million shares from former Facebook employees must be approved by Facebook and amounts to 0.1 percent of the company, Faber said. Jonathan Thaw, a Facebook spokesman, declined to comment, as did Adam Weiner, a spokesman for General Atlantic.
Facebook, owner of the world’s most popular social-networking site, said in January it raised $1.5 billion in a financing round led by Goldman Sachs. That transaction valued the company at $50 billion, the Palo Alto-based company said at the time.
Facebook said that offering was oversubscribed and it chose to raise less than the $2 billion it could have. The Goldman-led funding was limited to non-U.S. investors amid concern that selling to those in the U.S. would violate rules limiting the marketing of private securities.
General Atlantic, founded in 1980, has $17 billion in capital under management. The firm’s Internet and media investments include luxury goods seller Gilt Groupe and software company Kaspersky Lab.
