Facebook's Value Unknown

Last year Microsoft publicly valued Facebook at $15 billion, however according to a document made available to the public last week it has put into speculation that the value of Facebook may only be $3.75 billion.

The document was made public during the recent court case between Facebook and rival company ConnectU. ConnectU was suing Facebook as they believe the founder and former employee, Mark Zuckerberg, stole the Facebook concept from ConnectU.

The valuation was approved by Facebook's board of directors and was based on the fair value of the stock options that they give to employees which was required under United States Tax Law. ConnectU had signed a settlement for a number of stock options rather than a dollar figure from Facebook and as a result tried to to get out of their signed agreement at the last minute due to the lower value put on the stock options however they were not successful.

Microsoft bought shares which had special rights, such as the agreement that Facebook could not partner with Google, which in turn made their value higher. This would mean that the value of Facebook could be between $3.75-$15 billion, however the true value would not be known until the company was publicly listed or a takeover was initiated.