Hot market for Facebook stock as co-founder said to be selling 10 million shares

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‘Is there a tech bubble? Rounded off to the nearest yes: Yes,’ angel investor Mike Maples told the Demo conference this week.

Not that there is anything wrong with the soaring valuations of Facebook, Groupon, Twitter or Zynga (which he calls ‘Thunder Lizards’), he says. It’s all those copycat companies out to mimic their success.

According to an unconfirmed report in the New York Post, one of the co-founders of Facebook has decided it’s time to cash out some common stock and is looking to unload as many as 10 million shares. The sale of about a half of 1% of the company could raise as much as $300 million.

Facebook could not be reached for comment.

No question that Facebook shares are catnip for investors. Redpoint Ventures partner Geoff Yang says on Twitter that he’s heard as much as $1 billion worth of stock is on the market.

CNBC is reporting that Facebook is close to a deal with investment firm General Atlantic for one tenth of 1% of the company which would value the social networking service at $65 billion, according to people with knowledge of the transaction.

Facebook’s value has surged 40% in the past few months to as high as $70 billion.

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-- Jessica Guynn