How Much Is Photobucket Worth?

Silicon Valley/Colorado based photo and video sharing site Photobucket has 36 million registered users and adds another 85,000 per day. If the growth rate continues, they’ll have 60 million users by the end of the year. More users visit Photobucket each month – 17 million, than Facebook. 56% of those users are under 35, and 52% are female. 300,000 unique websites link back to Photobucket. They move a lot of data.

Fortune wrote a long article on the company yesterday – the first time mainstream press has noticed this already large startup.

Photobucket generates revenue through premium accounts, and advertising on the site. The rumor is that they are nearing break even, and aren’t spending much of the $15 million they’ve raised in venture capital ($8 million or so is left in the bank).

Basically, Photobucket is kicking butt. So the question is, how much are they worth?

Lehman Brothers, the investment bank they’ve hired to explore a sale of the company, is saying $300 – $400 million or more in private talks with potential buyers.

Included in the documents distributed to buyers is a revenue breakdown of the company by year. In 2005, Photobucket revenue was $4.35 million, growing to $9.34 million in 2006 and on pace to hit over $32 million this year. Last year, advertising accounted for 68% of revenue. This year, they estimate it will grow to 79%. See full revenue breakdown in the image below.

Photobucket wouldn’t comment on this article, but our sources indicate that a number of acquirors are very interested in the company at this price. Given revenue growth and another deal in this space, this might be cheap.

It also looks like Photobucket will be sporting a new home page design soon. Screen shot is below.