Facebook valuation skyrockets to $60 billion

SharesPost email says stock closed at $25 a share on the secondary market

This is just getting crazy. I guess people are really excited about Mark Zuckerberg being named Person of the Year.

Facebook’s skyrocketing valuation seems to know no limits, as a SharesPost email sent out Friday says that the company’s common stock closed at $25 a share on the secondary market. If 2.5 billion shares are left outstanding, then Facebook’s current valuation has reached a new high of $59.4 billion.

That’s $9.4 billion more than the last reported valuation of $50 billion from just two weeks ago. Facebook’s second market valuation was $35 billion a month ago and $30 billion a month and a half ago. It seems like nothing can stop the company’s growing valuation, but eventually buyers will have to start thinking it’s overvalued, right?

If we can compare private company valuations to public company market caps, then Facebook is rapidly approaching the value of Amazon, whose market cap has lately swung around $80 billion. That’s interesting because there are rumors floating around that Facebook is estimated to generate $2 billion in revenue, which is just a fraction of Amazon’s $7.56 billion in revenue from the third quarter of 2010.

Apparently that doesn’t matter to whoever wants these shares. Granted, Facebook might have some grand plans for advertising or something else to bring in revenue, but until that’s proven, this valuation is just incredible.

Here’s a copy of the email in which SharesPost discloses auction information:

SharesPost’s affiliated broker dealer has completed a sealed bid auction of 165,000 shares of the Common Stock of Facebook, Inc. for certain qualifying SharePost members. A clearing price of $25 per share was established. Qualifying SharesPost members who are interested in participating in the next auction as either a buyer or a seller should contact Tim Sullivan. We anticipate launching our next Facebook auction on January 10, 2011.

The response from the SharesPost community to the auction was substantial and the auction was significantly oversubscribed. As a result, when marketplace dynamics warrant it, we anticipate holding auctions in the new year for the shares of Facebook and other companies represented in the SharesPost marketplace. SharesPost’s unique ability to transparently and efficiently provide investors with access to investments in leading growth companies, both directly and via pooled investment vehicles, benefits our 40,000 registered buyers and sellers of private company shares and the issuers of those shares.