Russians bid for Facebook

A Russian internet company has valued Facebook at $10bn (around £6.3bn), offering to buy a two per cent stake in the world's biggest social-networking community.

The $200m bid for shares in Facebook came from Digital Sky Technologies (DST), which is controlled by Russian internet entrepreneur Yuri Milner.

Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has said the company is considering investment.

The last significant investment came when Microsoft bought a 1.6 per cent stake in 2007, valuing the company at $15bn.

DST owns stakes in several of Russia's largest internet companies, including the country's largest website Mail.ru.

Facebook this weekend criticised Tehran's decision to block access to the site in Iran ahead of next month's presidential elections.

In a statement, the social-networking site expressed disappointment that its site was apparently blocked "at a time when voters are turning to the internet as a source of information about election candidates and their positions".