• The Wall Street Journal, Friday, October 26, 2007 11:03 AM

Facebook apparently isn't done collecting money from third-party investors: the Internet upstart is in talks with hedge funds and private equity firms to raise as much as $260 million. The news comes just two days after the company completed the sale of 1.6% of its equity to Microsoft for $240 million.

Nothing has been signed yet, but an announcement should be forthcoming, unless the talks, which are preliminary, collapse in the next week or so. The investments, like the Microsoft deal, would also value the company at $15 billion.

What, exactly, does Facebook plan to do with the money? An international expansion is the most likely scenario, as is a new round of hiring, particularly as the company prepares to roll out its new targeted advertising system in the next couple of weeks.

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »