Goldman is betting that it can parlay its $450 million investment into hundreds of millions in fees it can wring from lucrative equity, debt, and merger and acquisition deals with Facebook.
Some analysts say Goldman could ring up fees of as much as $50 million from just leading an initial public offering of Facebook.
Goldman is expected to make an announcement of its interest in Facebook, reported late Sunday, as soon as today, sources note. A Goldman spokesman declined to comment.
According to reports, Goldman made an investment alongside Russia's Digital Sky Technologies, with plans to offer its shares of Facebook to its clients via a special purpose vehicle.
At present, Facebook sees only limited trading on secondary exchange platform SecondMarket, for privately-held companies.
Such a move has raised concerns with regulators, which mandate that private companies that trade on the secondary markets much have less than 500 investors or be forced to disclose their results publicly.
Yesterday, SecondMarket said the Securities and Exchange Commission has requested information about its private exchange.
Meanwhile, Goldman's ties to Facebook may result from the fact that Digital Sky -- one of Facebook's biggest investors -- hired away key Goldman execs, including top technology banker John Lindfors, back in June. mark.decambre@nypost.com
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