Today: Goldman Sachs reportedly is investing $450 million intoFacebook. Plus: Apple surpasses $300 billion in market value.
NYT: Goldman Sachs buys into Facebook
Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs is pouring $450 million into PaloAlto social networking powerhouse Facebook and is offering itswealthy clients the chance to invest in the Internet upstart beforea possible 2012 IPO, The New York Times' DealBook site is reporting.
According to DealBook, which cited "people familiar with thematter," Goldman Sachs has sent an e-mail to its clients offeringthe chance to invest a minimum of $2 million in an unidentifiedprivate company.
The clients reportedly wouldn't be able to sell their sharesuntil 2013, and those even considering an investment would haveaccess to private information that would restrict their ability tobuy or sell Facebook shares on secondary markets.
According to The Associated Press, the Goldman Sachs investmentalong with a reported $50 million infusion from Russian investmentfirm Digital Sky Technologies (which, you might recall, has aprevious stake in Facebook) would value the social networking siteat $50 billion -- bigger by market value than Silicon Valley techpowerhouses such as eBay and Yahoo, but less than Google, CiscoSystems or Hewlett-Packard.
In 2010, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was named Timemagazine's "Person of the Year." In July, Zuckerberg noted that thesite -- started at Harvard University in 2004 -- had a half-billionactive members.
An Apple milestone
As stocks climbed on the first trading day of the new year, Applereached a milestone: The world's most valuable technology company isnow worth more than $300 billion (or six times the reported Facebookvalue).
Shares of the Cupertino maker of Mac computers and "i" devicesfinished regular trading today at $329.57, up $7.01, or 2.2 percent,from last week's closing price, giving Apple a market value of morethan $302 billion. Earlier, Apple stock hit an all-time high of$330.26.
In 2010, Apple introduced products including its new iPad tabletcomputer.
According to an Associated Press report, Apple (as is its custom)will be conspicuous by its absence this week at the big ConsumerElectronics Show in Las Vegas.
Other electronics makers -- including Motorola, Dell and Toshiba -- are expected to introduce their own tablets, some of which willrun Google's Android operating system.
Even so, Apple has a big head start in the tablet market,according to AP. "For the next year or two, we expect there to be alot of false starts, failed attempts, and disasters," DisplaySearchanalyst Richard Shim wrote, according to the news service.
More tech headlines
Motorola: The cell phone maker is splitting into two companies asof tomorrow, according to AP.
Motorola Mobility will include consumer businesses such assmartphones, while Motorola Solutions will include products such aspolice radios and bar-code scanners, according to AP.
Microsoft: The Redmond, Wash., software behemoth said it hasfixed a problem in its Hotmail online e-mail service. Starting NewYear's Day, some Hotmail customers reported they couldn't find theirold e-mails. A Microsoft spokeswoman told AP that Hotmail users havetheir e-mails now, and the company is looking into the cause of theproblem.
Silicon Valley tech stocks
Up: Apple, Google, Oracle, Cisco, VMware, eBay, Gilead Sciences,Yahoo.
Down: Intel, HP.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index: Up 38.65, or 1.4 percent,to 2,691.52.
The blue chip Dow Jones industrial average: Up 93.24, or 0.8percent, to 11,670.75.
And the widely watched Standard & Poor's 500 index: Up 14.23, or1.1 percent, to 1,271.87.
Check in weekday afternoons for the 60-Second Business Break, asummary of news from Mercury News staff writers, The AssociatedPress, Bloomberg News and other wire services. Contact Frank Russellat 408-920-5876. Follow him at Twitter.com/mercspike.
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