Pinterest worth $1.5-billion in Valley's latest sky-high valuation

Hot social network Pinterest just landed a sizable cash infusion: The company raised $100 million in a financing round by e-commerce giant Rakuten. Existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners and FirstMark Capital also participated in the round.

Japan-based online retailing giant Rakuten is leading the latest $100 million round of funding in U.S. social networking site Pinterest.

After a tough day at work as a publicist in Minneapolis, Becca Bijoch would often indulge in a little retail therapy. She usually headed out to the stores as she did not care much for online shopping.

From political uprisings to billion-dollar acquisitions, social media packed a bigger punch in 2012 than ever before.

(Reuters) - Pinterest, the increasingly popular online bulletin board, raised $100 million in a financing round that values the U.S. start-up at $1.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter. The funding is led by Japanese e-commerce site Rakuten, with Pinterest's existing venture-capital investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, FirstMark Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners also participating, the report said. Pinterest could not immediately be reached by Reuters for comments. ...

Pinterest, which allows users to share photographs, recipes and other media on custom "pinboards," raised $100 million in a funding round led by the Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten.

A picture’s worth much more than a thousand words to Facebook. Last April — a year ago today, in fact — the social media giant agreed to buy the quickly growing photo-sharing social network Instagram for a cool $1 billion (the final price, a mixture of cash and stock, was $715 million because Facebook shares tumbled before the deal was finalized).

A picture’s worth much more than a thousand words to Facebook. Last April — a year ago today, in fact — the social media giant agreed to buy the quickly growing photo-sharing social network Instagram for a cool $1 billion (the final price, a mixture of cash and stock, was $715 million because Facebook shares tumbled before the deal was finalized).