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Dec 19, 2007

Hutchison Whampoa billionaire Li Ka-shing invests $60m in Facebook


Hong Kong Billionaire Sir Li Ka-shing, the man behind Hutchison Whampoa and therefore Orange and 3 UK, has reportedly invested $60m of his fortune into taking a piece of Facebook.
The deal, reported by Kara Swisher on All Things Digital, is small change to a man who is reported to have a fortune of $23bn - placing in the Top 10 richest men in the world list.
Ka-shing joins Microsoft which took a 1.6% stake in Mark Zuckerberg's baby for $240m last month.

Despite his massive array of business interests Ka-shing is not making the investment in Facebook through any of the companies he controls - says All Things Digital - but through another investment vehicle.

The deal, which gives him the right to plough in another $60m, will not give him a seat on the Facebook board; something Microsoft was similarly denied.
If there is one virtue that Ka-shing appears to have in spades it is patience in his investments making big bucks.

He has invested billions into 3 in the UK - including 4.38bn in the auction war for 3G spectrum from the government a few years back - so waiting for Facebook to become a cash cow (despite its set back with the climb down on Beacon) will be of little consequence.

Of course not really needing the money leaves the interesting question of what he hopes to get out of the stake.

According to the tale of the connection of Ka-shing to Facebook there is a link to mobile internet company Tom.com, which Ka-Shing has a stake in, which could open all sorts of multi-media partnerships in China.

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