So as I mentioned first here about Greylock, all the speculation has come to rest: the social networking site Facebook has closed $25 million in funding, from Greylock Partners, and includes earlier investors, Meritech Capital Partners, Accel Partners and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. Facebook had raised about $13 million earlier from Accel and Thiel.
It looks like Mark’s build-or-sell nightmare has ended for now….
SiliconBeat: “It has never been our intention to sell the company,” said Melanie Deitch, Facebook’s director of marketing, adding that the latest funding puts the rumors of such a sale to rest. Which of course is a outright lie...it has been shopped around, for sure, so I don’t want to hear “oh-we-were-only-testing-waters” spiel.
Anyway, Greylock’s David Sze said the company will eventually turn to developing three revenue streams: local advertisers, such as pizza companies or bookstores that want to post an ad for a local college audience; banner advertisers seeking to reach Facebook’s demographic; and sponsored groups, such as large companies sponsoring an online forum to interact with students.
Related:
—@ DH: Day Two: Sun Finally Out; YouTube Rumors; Facebook Fallout; Qualcomm; MobiTV
—More On Facebook And The $2 Billion Myth
—Facebook’s “On-The-Block” Block Party