(Editor’s note: This is the third installment in a series about the late stage, secondary investing craze sweeping the venture capital business. For the first two installments go here and here.)
On May 26, 2009 Mike sat down with Yuri Milner, Mark Zuckerberg and a Flipcam to talk about the then-scandalous $200 million investment DST made in Facebook, at a price that valued the company at about… → Read More
Yesterday we were hearing reports that global investing behemoth Digital Sky Technologies was setting up another fund, already investing in Groupon and Spotify’s $100 million round and sniffing around the “Amazon of China,” 360buy.com. Today the company has confirmed the reports to Reuters, revealing that the total amount of financing was an impressive 1.5 billion. 360buy.com, in the same space… → Read More
According to Russian business newspaper Vedomosti (via Quintura), star investor Digital Sky Technologies has set up a new fund dubbed DST Global – 2. The fund has already made investments in Groupon (January 2011) and is close to investing $50 million in exchange for 5 percent of online music startup Spotify as part of a $100 million round, according to the paper.
You may remember we broke the… → Read More
In Silicon Valley it’s not just who you invest in that matters– it’s also when you invest in them. The earlier the investment, the riskier the bet. But the more jawdropping the returns if the company hits it big. It’s so lopsided, that typically just 5% of those unsure early bets create some 95% of the entire venture industry’s returns. Miss one of them, and it haunts you for years. Snag it, and… → Read More
In case you missed it, being a super angel is officially passe. The new hotness is having a late-stage growth cash. Sequoia Capital is doing it. Andreessen Horowitz is doing it. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is doing it. Accel is doing it. Hell, even Chris Sacca is somehow doing it.
Greylock is the latest to officially join the club, with news today of an expansion to its current fund… → Read More
Last night at the Crunchies, Yuri Milner of Digital Sky Technologies won the VC of the Year award (Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures was a close runner-up). Milner has almost single-handedly created a new class of mezzanine venture capital, allowing companies like Facebook, Groupon, and Zynga to postpone IPOs while still getting a ton of liquidity and huge valuations.
Before he could leave… → Read More
As we first reported last night, Groupon has already closed $500 million of a whopping $950 million funding round. Now the SEC filing is out showing that the first sale occurred on December 17, and that there is still $450 million worth of securities available to be sold in the current round. The new round gives Groupon a valuation of $4.75 billion.
We noted that most of the proceeds of the… → Read More
Le Web 10 host Loic Le Meur just finished his on-stage interview with Alexander Tamas, Partner at one of the most watched technology investment firms on the planet, DST / Mail.ru Group.
That’s quite a presence you have: Groupon, Zynga, Facebook and … Twitter?
Not Twitter (smiles). → Read More
Today at the Web 2.0 summit, DST chief Yuri Milner took the stage with John Battelle, where he discussed the firm’s investment strategy (DST has taken major stakes in Facebook, Zynga, and Groupon). Milner was reserved with most of his answers, declining to discuss details on DST’s investments or what other companies it is eyeing, but he did have some interesting things to say about… → Read More
Mail.ru Group, formerly known as Digital Sky Technologies and notable investor in Internet sensations Facebook, Groupon and Zynga, among others, has filed for a $876 million IPO on the London Stock Exchange that would value the investment firm at up to $5.7 billion.
That valuation is higher than expected (earlier reports predicted a $5 billion valuation). → Read More
Internet investment group Digital Sky Technologies (DST) today formally announced the acquisition of Russian social network Odnoklassniki.ru, which we reported on last week.
DST has bought out out the minority shareholders in Forticom Group Limited – which it now fully owns – and Odnoklassniki, and interestingly transferred its interest in the Polish social network Nasza-Klasa.pl to the previous… → Read More
Internet investment group Digital Sky Technologies (DST) today formally announced the acquisition of Russian social network Odnoklassniki.ru, which we reported on last week.
DST has bought out out the minority shareholders in Forticom Group Limited – which it now fully owns – and Odnoklassniki, and interestingly transferred its interest in the Polish social network Nasza-Klasa.pl to the previous… → Read More
The Internet investment group Digital Sky Technologies (DST) has acquired Odnoklassniki.ru, having previously owned an 80 percent interest in the Russian social network.
The deal, reported to be valued between $14m and $28m, according to local newspaper Vedomosti, sees Odnoklassniki.ru founder, Albert Popkov, relinquish his remaining 20 per cent of the company. Popkov had raised several million… → Read More
A unit of international media group Naspers, namely its subsidiary Myriad International Holdings, is to buy a 28.7% stake in Digital Sky Technologies (DST), the Russian firm behind investments in notable Internet companies like Facebook, Groupon and Zynga.
Naspers will be investing $388 million in cash, and contribute its 39.3% stake in Mail.ru into DST. Concurrently, Mail.ru management and other… → Read More
Global investment group Digital Sky Technologies (aka DST), who has famously invested in major Internet companies such as Facebook, Zynga and Groupon, has made another key hire.
The latest finance whiz to join the Russian investment firm as partner is John Lindfors, who will start there next September. → Read More
Global investment group Digital Sky Technologies (aka DST), who has famously invested in major Internet companies such as Facebook, Zynga and Groupon, has made another key hire.
The latest finance whiz to join the Russian investment firm as partner is John Lindfors, who will start there next September. → Read More
If you hadn’t heard of Russian Internet holding company Digital Sky Technologies one year ago, you probably weren’t alone. But last May — almost exactly one year ago — DST took the tech industry by storm with a $200 million investment in Facebook. It followed that up with a huge investment in Zynga, one in Groupon (and another in Facebook). Today at TechCrunch Disrupt, renowned… → Read More
It’s done. AOL has officially sold instant messaging service ICQ to Russian investor DST for $187.5 million. In a release, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said “As AOL continues its turnaround effort, we’re fortunate to find a great home for ICQ with DST.”
Rumors of ICQ’s possible sale were first reported last November. We’d heard speculation that Naspers was interested last year but dropped out of… → Read More
[Russia] The Moscow-based social games company Nival Network, part of the Nival Group, has raised $7 million in new funding from DST, 1C Company and Nival Group founder & CEO Sergey Orlovskiy, according to a report (russian) in the Vedomosti newspaper.
DST have invested $4 million for a 12.5% stake, with software vendor 1C (a previous investor) providing an additional $1 million and Nival… → Read More
It looks like some major consolidation is about to go down in the Central European Internet market, and in particular Poland.
According to local newspaper reports, the largest Internet group in the region, Naspers/MIH Group, is conducting due diligence of assets belonging to DST (Digital Sky Technology)-owned holding Forticom. Naspers/MIH Group and DST already together own the largest Russian… → Read More
Digital Sky Technologies, the Russian investment group founded by Yuri Milner and Gregory Finger, has increased its stake in social networking leader Facebook to more than 5% of the American company, Russia’s leading business newspaper Kommersant reports.
Furthermore, DST is looking to increase its stake in Facebook even more, according to Yakov Sadchikov from Quintura, who picked up on the news… → Read More
Zynga, one of the stars of the Scamville drama, has raised a big round of funding – $180 million. Digital Sky Technologies, Tiger Global, Institutional Venture Partners and Andreessen Horowitz all participated in the round. The company has now raised $219 million in total.
DST, which has invested $300 million in Facebook this year, led the round. As with Facebook, some of DST’s investment will… → Read More
Digital Sky Technologies (aka DST), the Russian Internet holding company that holds stakes in several major Russian-language social networking and communication players and notably also recently invested in Facebook, is melting two of its largest portfolio companies together into one online powerhouse.
Astrum Online Entertainment, itself formed by DST after merging five online game companies that… → Read More
Russian social network Vkontakte.ru, notoriously heavily ‘inspired’ by Facebook‘s design, business model and features, is plotting an international roll-out according to daily business newspaper Vedomosti (Google translation).
The report mentions that the company has recently acquired the domain name vk.com for an undisclosed amount and plans to use it to brand and market Vkontakte.ru in 12… → Read More
Russian investment group Digital Sky Technologies has placed a tender offer to purchase up to $100 million of common stock from current and former Facebook employees, we’ve confirmed from a source close to the deal. Employees who would like to accept the offer must accept the terms within 20 business days from today. The offer is for $14.77 per share, valuing the company at $6.5 billion.
Facebook… → Read More
When I was at SXSW a few weeks back, the new daylight savings time took place. My Blackjack failed to recognize new switch and I was stuck with the wrong time for the entire week. It was a pain in the ass, but I finally got it fixed when I returned home and patched Windows Mobile. Well according to some speculation, many older devices could spring forward this Sunday when we reach the old DST… → Read More
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