Facebook employees are offered $14.77 a share

SOCIAL NOTWORKING SITE employees at Facebook who want to make a quick buck off their company are being allowed to sell stock for $14.77 per share under an agreement with Digital Sky Technologies.

The Russian outfit wants to buy $100 million of Facebook common stock from current and former employees. It already announced a separate $200 million investment in Facebook's preferred shares in May, which means it thinks the value of the company is $10 billion.

From a Facebook staff member's perspective this means that they can get some cash out of the outfit at last, particularly before it goes to a public float and Wall Street starts wondering if it is really worth all that much.

Although Facebook is doing much better than Rupert Murdoch's MySpace, it is expected to make only $500 million in revenue this year.

Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said today in a statement that staff being able to sell shares was recognition of Facebook's growth and progress towards making the world more open and connected.

If they do sell their shares, and we don't know how many they are sitting on, it will give the Russians a 3.5 per cent stake.

Digital Sky is convinced that Facebook is on the road to become one of the world's most successful Internet companies. µ