Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Accel to make 800x return on Facebook IPO

Accel Facebook Bet Poised to Become Biggest Venture Profit
Jim Breyer of Accel
A few months after struggling to raise a new fund in 2005, Accel Partners bet $12.2 million on a website run by a college dropout. Seven years later, that wager is poised to be the most profitable ever for a venture firm.

Accel, whose partners include Jim Breyer and Kevin Efrusy, is the top outside investor in Facebook Inc., owning about 10 percent. Assuming Facebook is valued at $100 billion, Accel’s stake on paper is worth about $10 billion.

When Accel made its Facebook investment, the site had just 2.8 million users -- all on college campuses -- and was run by a 21-year-old Mark Zuckerberg. Now it has 800 million members worldwide and an estimated $4.27 billion in 2011 sales, according to EMarketer Inc. That explosive growth is poised to deliver an 800-fold return on Accel’s money, catapulting the firm to the....read more here Accel Facebook Bet Set as Biggest VC Profit