Facebook shocked most of Silicon Valley by shelling out a cool $1 billion to buy Instagram -- the priciest acquisition ever for a company that likes to grab startups when they're tiny and cheap.
But Facebook's now-staggering valuation, which could top $75 billion when the company goes public, means some of its earliest acquisitions are now worth eye-popping sums.
Here's an especially ironic one: Friendster.
Facebook quietly purchased a patent bundle from Friendster's current owner, Malaysian Internet company MOL Global, in May 2010, and handed over 3.6 million shares as part of the price tag. The deal was valued around $40 million at the time, according to GigaOm and other tech blogs.
If Facebook's shares price at $35, the high end of its proposed range, Friendster's stake will be worth $127 million.
MOL has been sitting on its shares ever since, but it may unload them soon.
"We will probably sell them for our business," MOL Global principal owner Tan Sri Vincent Tan told Malaysian newspaper The Star earlier this year. "We don't want to hold them for too long but will see where the shares go after the IPO.... Source/Origin >> Read More
