Posted on 09/28/2007 10:28:24 AM PDT by XR7
Microsoft is weighing up taking a stake in Facebook in a move that could value the social networking site at $10 billion (£5 billion) and trigger a bidding war.
It is understood that the world’s largest software developer is considering paying between $300 million (£149 million) and $500 million for a 5 per cent stake in Facebook. A move by Microsoft would almost certainly trigger counter interest from a clutch of rivals including Google, the leader in search advertising, and Viacom, the media giant.
Talks between Microsoft and Facebook are thought to be at an early stage and Facebook is believed to exploring alternative sources of funding, including venture capital money, to support ambitious expansion plans.
Figures released yesterday, which showed Facebook is now the most popular social network in the UK, underscored the site’s ascent since its launch in 2004.
Facebook received 6.5 million unique visitors in August, compared with MySpace's 6.4 million, according to Nielsen//NetRatings, the analysts. Both sites are now visited by one in every five Britons with online access, the numbers show, and are continuing to extend their reach.
Facebook’s UK membership has grown more than 500 per cent in the past year and the average Facebook user in the UK spent more than 16 hours on the site during August.
The site’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, who is 23 years old, has mooted a valuation of $15 billion but has so far insisted that Facebook will remain independent. Last year Mr Zuckerberg is understood to have rebuffed approaches from suitors including Yahoo!, which had offered about $1 billion.
However, Mr Zuckerberg is also said to have a close relationship with Ray Ozzie, who as Microsoft's chief software architect...
(Excerpt) Read more at business.timesonline.co.uk ...
23 years old?!!!
$10 Billion?
Sheesh!
I hate viacom and google, please do not buy Facebook!
All the Lib-idiot college students will be devastated. (Que evil laugh)
Okay, everyone loves someone who will defend a cause at all costs.
But really, this kid needs to sell-out.
And soon. Before the next fad comes along.
ISTG! Anyone could put a file server on the internet and let other people make cute webpages for themselves, add some searching and cross-referencing functions, toss in a few ads, and become a billionaire! A-fricking-mazing! Most amazing is that someone will consider paying 500 million to own 5% of a name, because that is all it amounts to.
And there were plenty of geniuses on this site who called the kid an idiot a few months ago when he turned down an offer for only $1 billion.
Myspace sold for half a billion. This isn’t 20 times the site.
Have you seen this season’s tulips? They are worth a fortune. < /s >
guess inflation is really getting out of hand
they are getting 10 billion for bulletin board
amazing good thing its not a bubble again
If you had $10 billion and were age 23...what would you do the rest of your life? I’d be in the Caribbean and buying my own island.
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