Facebook blow for Goldman US clients
Posted by Gwen Robinson on Jan 18 04:23. Goldman Sachs has scrapped an offer to clients in the US to participate in a $1.5bn investment in Facebook, dealing a blow to one of the most closely watched private financings for a US company, reports the FT. The offer will still be open to investors elsewhere but the bank said publicity over the plan threatened to put it in breach of US securities laws against the promotion of private share sales. Demand for shares in Facebook, which is considering a full initial public offering in early 2012, has soared in private markets in recent months, making Goldman’s ability to offer favoured clients the stock a coup for the bank. DealBook notes that problems with the offering may fuel recent tensions between Goldman and Facebook, and could damage the firm’s prospects of leading Facebook’s long-awaited IPO. DealJournal posts Goldman’s “sorry about that” statement.
— The MasterFeeds