Here’s one thing we can all agree on about the Goldman-Facebook deal: It’s been pageview gold for technology and business bloggers. Now we’ll see what it does for television ratings.
Bloomberg TV tonight will broadcast a one-hour special about the deal and “what it means for the social network and Silicon Valley.” Really, an entire hour devoted to a private equity deal that hasn’t even closed.
The usual pundit suspects will be interviewed, including Paul Kedrosky, David Kirkpatrick and Bill Cohan. Also appearing in a pre-taped segment is Digital Sky Technologies boss Yuri Milner, who first invested in Facebook two years ago and reportedly is co-investing this time around with Goldman Sachs.
Milner obviously has great insight into the mind of a Facebook investor, but unfortunately his interview was filmed last year in Moscow for Bloomberg’s Game Changers series. That means no talk from him about the Goldman transaction — which reportedly is so popular that the bank is ending solicitation tomorrow — although he probably wouldn’t have commented even if he was being interviewed live.
So what does Milner discuss? Mostly his general feelings about Facebook (including privacy issues), and some retelling of DST’s original investment in the company. For example, here is his reply when asked about Mark Zuckerberg’s abilities as a negotiator:
There was no table, there was his house. I think he just moved into the house two days ago, two days before the deal went down. And I think we were sort of the first maybe group of people to use his house as a negotiating platform. I think he used that afterwards a couple of times, but I remember it was mostly kind of under the tree.
Here is a preview for tonight’s show, which airs at 9pm ET on Bloomberg TV:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80RhCF8D7cE]
