According to an announcement from PRNewsWire, Facebook has raised an additional $1.5 billion in venture capital funding from Digital Sky Technologies and Goldman Sachs. The $1.5 billion increase now puts the overall value of Facebook at a cool $50 billion.

The breakdown is composed of $1 billion from Goldman Sachs as a part of their offering to non-U.S. clients. The other $500 million came from Goldman Sachs and DST in December as part of their Class A Common Stock addition.

“Our business continues to perform well, and we are pleased to be able to bolster our cash position with this new financing,” said David Ebersman, Facebook’s CFO. “With this investment completed, we now have greater financial flexibility to explore whatever opportunities lie ahead.”

So was it necessary? Well, Goldman Sachs and DST approached Facebook with the investment offer and the prospect of additional revenue and flexibility in the market would be silly to deny. Considering the $1.5 billion represents 3% of their post-transaction worth, that’s a hefty chunk of cash.

As far as the Non-U.S. offering is concerned, PRNewsWire had the following to say:

Under the transaction’s terms, Facebook had the option to accept between $375 million and $1.5 billion from the Goldman Sachs overseas offering, at the discretion of Facebook. While the offering was oversubscribed, Facebook made a business decision to limit the offering to $1 billion. More about Flic Social Media

At the moment there are no plans for the funds to be directly apportioned to.

Internet and SMS Blackout in Egypt

On-site reporters, journalists and protesters alike are reporting that Egypt is currently experiencing a total online blackout. The blackouts, which started with Twitter, have how expanded to all internet access and the majority of service provider’s SMS capabilities.

One of Egypt’s primary ISPs, Seabone, is reporting that no traffic is entering or exiting the country some time after midnight.

Throughout the course of the protests, social networking and blogging has been critical in gathering more protesters, informing the public and keeping the rest of the world in the loop as far as what the protesters are fighting for. The original protest, which was mostly formulated through Facebook, saw over 90,000 people join and collaborate in a relatively short period of time.

Likewise, Twitter hashtags such as #jan25th, #egypt, #cairo and #egyptprotest have been flooding the network, inspiring others to keep up with the latest news and stories surrounding the progress of protesters and the government’s attempts to keep them contained.

At the moment, Al Jazeera has the most up-to-date information regarding government reaction, and they’ve managed to keep a live stream going since the protests first started to unfold.

It’s pretty difficult to judge just how much of an effect the blackout will have on protester collaboration and the overall effort, but it looks like the snowball is already so massive that their is no stopping the voice and actions of Egypt’s unrelenting citizens whose momentum is fueled by the prospect of overthrow.