Spotify stake values firm at over $1bn
DIGITAL Sky Technologies (DST) is understood to be close to finalising a $100m (£61.7m) investment in Spotify that would value the music streaming site at $1bn.
DST already owns a stake of up to 10 per cent in Facebook and invested in the $180m fund-raising for Farmville-maker Zynga.
If DST went ahead with the move, which was reported in TechCrunch, it would mean that the company would have stakes in nearly all of the well-known pre-float tech firms that investors are chasing.
The Russian firm grabbed headlines after it added $50m to its investment in Facebook as part of Goldman Sachs’ $2bn funding round for the social networking site.
The Spotify investment once again raised fears of a second dotcom bubble, with Google and Facebook both understood to be in talks to buy Twitter for up to $10bn (£6.23bn).
The Silicon Valley giants are said to be in “very speculative” negotiations to take control of the hugely popular microblogging site.
In its recent financing round, Twitter was valued at $3.7bn, after selling $200m worth of shares.
LinkedIn, the professional networking site, is expected to reach a valuation of around $2bn after filing plans for an IPO.
And Facebook has been valued at a staggering $50bn after Goldman placed a number of its privately held shares. Facebook brought in revenues of around $2bn last year.
Facebook shares are now said to be selling for over $55 on trading sites for high net worth investors such as SharesPost.com, which would value the company at $124bn.
Deal website Groupon rejected a $6bn bid from Google last year.
DST and Spotify both declined to comment.
Sweden-based Spotify, which will soon announce a deal with music giant EMI to stream its music, counts Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing among its investors.
The service offers online access to millions of music tracks, which consumers can also buy. It has over 10m users in Europe.