Guess Who Passed on Facebook?

File this under "Not a strong vote of confidence." The NY Times DealBook reports that a division of Goldman Sachs originally passed on investing in Facebook.

Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, the investment giant's private equity fund, thought the social media web site offering was over-valued and not worth the investment. Also, an overly ambitious investment would violate the fiduciary responsibility the fund manager has to its wealthy clients.

According to DealBook, the fund's manager Richard Friedman passed on the chance to invest $450 million into the profitable web site. The main division of Goldman Sachs decided to invest in the site and the Times reports that about $75 million is coming from an inside hedge fund, Goldman Sachs Investment Partners. The firm is aiming to sell $1.5 billion more in shares to wealthy clients.

The killer graff:

One person briefed on the discussions with Mr. Friedman, however, said he would have "thrown out" his typical investment philosophy if he had believed a Facebook investment was an "easy home run."

Whom do you root for? Is this an over-hyped stock or did Friedman miss the boat for his clients? Let's ask anyone who invested in long-forgotten dot-coms from the late nineties and ask their opinion. Phil Albinus is the former editor-in-chief of Advanced Trading. He has nearly two decades of journalism experience and has been covering financial technology and regulation for nine years. Before joining Advanced Trading, he served as editor of Waters, a monthly trade journal ... View Full Bio