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"Update: We've had detailed conversations with Facebook, and its representatives have discredited our tipster, who didn't have his facts straight.\nThe tipster's claims about a new round of funding at Facebook and Apple's participation in that funding have been debunked. Below-mentioned investor Digital Sky Technologies was already involved in Series E funding in May of 2009 \u2014 something the tipster would have known had he been legit.\nWe said there were some suspicious aspects to this news when we heard it, and there you have it: Confirmed false.\nIs Mark Zuckerberg about to friend Steve Jobs? Facebook may be preparing to raise a blockbuster multi-million dollar Series E funding round with existing investors and potentially a new one: Apple Inc.  \nAccording to our tipster, the world's largest social network will raise a new round of funding in the next few months to fuel its growth and bridge the gap between now and its eventual IPO.  The potential amount of the Series E round wasn't revealed.  Facebook has already raised four rounds of funding along with an angel round in its six years of existence, amounting to more than half a billion dollars.\nIt's the second piece of information from our tipster that really piqued our interest, though.  Leading the potential round will be Digital Sky Technologies (an existing investor) and Apple.  Yes, Apple.  The funding is part of a partnership between the two companies that will eventually result in deep Facebook integration into Apple's suite of products, including Ping, iTunes, iLife and iWork.  \nBefore we continue, we want to stress that we haven't confirmed this story yet; we're still working on verifying or debunking this rumor.  We haven't worked with this tipster before, but this is now the third time we've heard about a potential Series E (from three different sources) and the second time that Apple has been mentioned as a likely investor.  That's enough to make us suspicious and curious.\nWe reported last week that Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg had dinner recently, presumably to chat about integrating Facebook into Ping.  Could the dinner conversation have been about more than just Ping?  Might the two CEOs have been talking about a deeper Facebook partnership and a potential investment from Apple? \nThe iPhone, iPad and Macbook maker is one of the few technology companies with the money to invest in Facebook \u2014 it has more than $40 billion in current assets.  That's enough to absorb Facebook's $33 billion market value, although we highly doubt Zuckerberg has any intention of selling the company he started.\nThere are a few things that make us skeptical of the Series E rumors.  The big one is that Facebook already has a major technology company as an investor: Microsoft, one of Apple's biggest rivals.  Microsoft covets its relationship with Facebook, most recently launching Facebook integration with Bing. Would Microsoft be comfortable with Apple being an investor?  Could Microsoft block an investment by Apple even if it wanted to?\nStill, Microsoft, Apple and Facebook all have a common enemy: Google.  That alone could be enough incentive to bring the three companies together.\nWe're working to find out how much truth there is to this rumor.  If you know anything, we're just an e-mail away."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2010/10/24/facebook-series-e-apple/>