li-ka-shing

Welcome to the White House

cityfile · 03/27/09 05:36AM

• President Obama will meet with 15 big banking CEOs in Washington today, including Vikram Pandit of Citigroup, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, and Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs. Obama plans to "quiz" them "about developments in the economy and their businesses." Sounds like fun. [CNN]
• Hedge fund managers can expect a lot more oversight in the future, which isn't something they're too excited about, not surprisingly. [Reuters, NYP]
• Andrew Cuomo says he now plans to widen his investigation of AIG. [DB]
• Many of the AIG execs charged with preventing the insurance giant from taking on too much risk still have jobs at the company for some reason. [WSJ]
• The exodus of Merrill bankers from Bank of America continues. [DJ, DB]
• Swiss private banks are banning top execs from traveling abroad for fear they will be detained as part of a crackdown on bank secrecy. [Reuters]
• Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing says it's time to start buying stocks and real estate again. Make of that what you will. [NYT]

Why Facebook borrowed $100 million for servers

Owen Thomas · 05/12/08 11:20AM

Technologists are instinctively averse to debt. The cycles are too swift and mistakes too punishing, the conventional wisdom says, to subject a startup to the burden of debt; cash is better spent on growth opportunities than interest. But Facebook has never followed the usual script for a startup, and its CFO, Gideon Yu, is no herd-follower, either. No wonder that the news that Facebook is leasing $100 million worth of servers, after raising a $360 million round of venture capital from Microsoft and Li Ka-Shing, is causing such a ruckus — and some misconceptions. Here are the instant myths that have arisen:

Andreessen to stack Facebook board further in Zuckerberg's favor

Nicholas Carlson · 05/06/08 11:40AM

Netscape cofounder and propagator of porn social networks Marc Andreessen will join Facebook's board of directors, Kara Swisher reports. Andreessen will join current board members Accel Partners Jim Breyer, Clarium Capital's Peter Thiel, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Andreessen is the chairman of Ning, a company which sells tools for rolling your own social network. If your mom has an excellent visual memory, she will probably remembers him for appearing on the cover of Time magazine without shoes on. You can tell her that he dresses better now, but only slightly. Why Andreessen, and not a proxy for new investors Microsoft or Li Ka-Shing?

Chinese Facebook clone Xiaonei raises more funding than Facebook

Owen Thomas · 04/30/08 07:00PM

Masayoshi Son is the kingmaker of the Asian Internet. His latest coronation: Xiaonei, a Chinese social network whose name translates to "on campus" and whose look and feel closely mirrors Facebook's. Son's Softbank and other investors have put $430 million into Xiaonei's parent, Oak Pacific Interactive, in a deal which values OPI at more than $1 billion. This has to worry executives at Facebook, which has raised less money — albeit while selling far less of the company to investors than Xiaonei has.

Startup will pay to hear from Facebook ex-COO, investor

Nicholas Carlson · 03/31/08 11:40AM

Chris Leach, the CEO of Pwned.com, describes his company as "the worlds first social networking website dedicated to videogamers that launched in December," distinguishing it from the first social networking websites dedicated to videogramers which launched in November or January. With credentials established, Leach informed us that he loved our post about finding a CEO gig for departed Facebook executive Owen Van Natta and would we please tell Mr. Van Natta that his company needs a new CEO, too? Leach promises Van Natta "salary/stock," and that he "would demote myself to COO, and out COO would switch to CTO." Then in all caps, Leach explained how he'd like us to convince Van Natta to join up.

Hong Kong tycoon doubles Facebook stake as employees eye exits

Owen Thomas · 03/27/08 04:40PM

Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong telecom billionaire, has upped his stake in Facebook, investing another $60 million in the social network. His new total: $120 million, or half of Microsoft's stake. The valuation: Still $15 billion. All the cash flowing into Facebook has gotten some Facebookers thinking about selling. CEO Mark Zuckerberg remains too cash-poor to buy his own house, but a handful of employees are cashing out.

Hong Kong billionaire invests $60 million in Facebook

Nicholas Carlson · 11/30/07 11:59AM

As we'd heard, Facebook has found a strategic investor in Asia: Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing will reportedly invest $60 million in Facebook with the option to double up later. The 79 year old is the world's ninth richest person and, as the photo above would indicate, a Facebook member as well. Though on the site, he's listed himself as a she. Not that there's anything wrong with that.