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Goldman Sachs ups Facebook’s valuation at $50 bn
MUMBAI: Digital Sky Technologies and Goldman Sachs have bought a stake in Facebook for $500 million, valuing the social networking site at $50 billion.
Goldman Sachs has put in $450 million while Digital Sky has invested the other $50 million in Facebook. The New York-based securities firm has also made an arrangement that allows its clients buy equity worth as much as $1.5 billion.
The move by Goldman Sachs to make Facebook‘s equity available for its clients may prompt U.S. regulators to find out whether the social networking site is evading any disclosure rules.
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has resisted floating shares since it was founded nearly seven years ago. As per the Securities and Exchange Commission regulations, companies with more than 499 investors need to make certain financial information public.
The recent deal indicates how fast the valuations have soared for Facebook which has established itself as a leader in that space. Venture capital firm Accel Partners paid less than $13 million for 10 per cent of Facebook in 2005.
According to the New York Times, Goldman will raise up to $1.5 billion from investors for Facebook as part of the deal.
But a stock market flotation does not look likely for the time being as Zuckerberg recently told US news show 60 Minutes that he did not see selling the company or going public as an end goal.
Microsoft bought a 1.6 per cent stake in Facebook by investing $240 million in 2007.
Facebook, valued at $50 billion, would exceed the valuations of Web portal Yahoo! and online commerce site EBay. The valuation would also be 25 times Facebook‘s 2010 revenue.
According to comScore, a marketing research company, Facebook‘s astonishing growth of up to 633 million global users by October 2010 has positioned it as the most powerful site on the web.
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
