May 26--Facebook announced Tuesday that it has secured a $200 million investment from the Russian firm Digital Sky Technologies -- a deal that places the value of the Palo Alto social-networking giant at $10 billion.

The deal, which gives DST a 1.96 percent stake in the privately held company, also could relieve pressure on Facebook to sell its stock to the public. That's because DST said it is willing to pursue a separate transaction in which it would purchase at least $100 million of Facebook stock from existing stockholders, giving them a way to get cash for their shares without the company going public.

DST, a holding company based in Moscow and London, will not be represented on the Facebook board or hold special "observer" rights, a condition similar to the October 2007 agreement in which Microsoft invested $240 million in exchange for 1.6 percent of the company.

That deal put Facebook's value at $15 billion and was a benchmark in a favorite Silicon Valley parlor game: guessing what the company is worth. Recently, an internal valuation of $3.7 billion surfaced in a legal proceeding.

'Fair valuation'

Microsoft's investment, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday, was made as the stock market was approaching its peak and was part of a deeper strategic relationship between the companies, including advertising and search aspects. The deal announced Tuesday is more of a financial investment,

both Zuckerberg and Yuri Milner, the CEO of DST, suggested.

Of the $10 billion figure, Zuckerberg said: "We feel this is a good and fair valuation for us."

Whatever the company's value, it's clear from Tuesday's announcement that Facebook's 200 million-plus users remain highly coveted, even as it seeks the best ways to make money.

The infusion of cash could enable Facebook to make some strategic acquisitions in a buyer's market, analysts said. It comes as the company tests features such as video chat and wrestles with a spate of phishing scams.

Both the investment and the potential deal to help shareholders "comes at the right time," said Jeremiah Owyang, a social networking analyst with Forrester Research.

Facebook, he said, needs to keep its 800-plus employees happy and also figure out ways to make money from its exponential growth.

"Seventy percent of their users are outside the U.S., so it makes their monetization of those users more challenging," Owyang said.