

And Groupon Makes Three. What’s Russian Firm DST’s Secret Sauce? - sound
http://www.nytimes.com/external/venturebeat/2010/04/23/23venturebeat-and-groupon-makes-three-whats-russian-firm-ds-6124.html

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vaksel
from what a few people posted in other threads, DST is basically a way for
some shady russian outfits to launder money.

That's the reason they don't mind overpaying a lot for their investments

Just read up on the guy who owns 32% of DST:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alisher_Usmanov#Legal_action_ov...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alisher_Usmanov#Legal_action_over_criminal_conviction_and_pardon)

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falsestprophet
What evidence is there of this?

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vaksel
no idea, like I said I'm just reposting what others said, but you can just
look at their investments, it's obviously they don't care about money since
they consistently overpay by a huge number for their investments.

No real investment fund that gets it's money from legit investors would
consistently overpay...i.e. they "valued" facebook at 10 billion...at a time
when facebook had problems raising funds at even a lower valuation. Why would
you overpay when you don't have to?

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huangm
'Overpaying' is just an opinion. Obviously we can only speculate, but many
people scoffed at Google's share price at IPO - anyone who bought-in despite
that now looks like a genius.

Also, as outsiders, it's impossible to know enough about what the exact
funding situation for Facebook looked like at the time to make conclusions
about overpaying.

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vaksel
Except Google had a good balance sheet/P&L...Facebook is barely
profitable...and facebook has already reached it's peak.

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frisco
> and facebook has already reached it's peak.

That's a ridiculous statement. Like Facebook or not, they've attracted a
world-class team, are growing _increasingly_ fast, and have consistently
innovated in ways the rest of the Valley hasn't seen coming. The announcements
at f8 just a few days ago are a great example of this. Facebook may or may not
become Google -- or even Microsoft -- sized, but their risk is almost entirely
execution now (and they've continually proven they know how to execute).

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waxman
shady oligarchy money. that's their secret sauce.

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sjasmin
I bet they announce a deal with foursquare pretty soon too. Just goes to show
you have to be in it to win it. I realize they are overpaying for these
opportunities, but this trend of what I call, private IPO's, seems to be the
new hot thing and DST is going to run the table while everyone else catches
on. I personally think they will be successful so long as they diversify their
risk enough.

