Posted on 12/17/2006 8:34:20 AM PST by shrinkermd
AT 22, Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard dropout, is being labelled as the next Bill Gates. But even the Microsoft founder might have hesitated before blowing the chance of a $1.6 billion (£819m) offer for his fledgling business.
Zuckerberg, founder of the Facebook social networking website, has told Yahoo!, the internet giant, that $1 billion is not enough to sell out. Now leaked documents suggest that Yahoo! was willing to raise its bid to $1.6 billion.
Facebook, which he launched as a service for Harvard students in 2004, has become the seventh busiest website on the internet, and with 13m users is the second biggest social network in America.
It has also become popular on British campuses, partly because it allows users to ensure that only people from their own university or place of work are put in touch.
However, it has also been blamed for carrying abuse about students and tutors. In one case, an Oxford University don found that someone had created a false profile in his name, claiming that he had been a member of the Hitler Youth. Although Facebook does have a facility to report unpleasant comments, few universities have the resources to patrol its pages.
There have also been warnings that students who post embarrassing personal material on the site could find it being used against them by future employers.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
In the meantime Facebook proves who isolated and alone young people are. Lacking traditional social groupings to make contact they now rely on the Internet. This is bound to have an effect on society, but what no one has quite determined as of yet.
I'm sorry - did somebody just turn down $1.6 BILLION for an f'ing website?
Try to buy Google for $1 billion. Some websites are worth a lot of money.
I predict this will be a b school case study of how not to do business.
Dude, take the money and run ! In another year your website will be worth very little as the fickleness of modern youth leaves you behind.
However, it has also been blamed for carrying abuse about students and tutors.
There have also been warnings that students who post embarrassing personal material on the site could find it being used against them by future employers.
How is that different than anything else on the internet?
If anything it's better, because there's recourse for correction and liability claims. Any other website could be so far out of reach -- somewhere in Estonia or run by people who don't care or have criminal interests.
This is just more whining about free speech. (Namely, that it's free. "Damn! something we can't control!")
Right now it's his baby, no matter the value. He probably enjoys running it. Yeah, he could take the money but then his baby would be someone else's adopted child. It'a a paternal thing ;)
Hard to say if it will maintain popularity or not. Myspace reportedly has 106,000 members and doesn't appear to be slowing down. It doesn't look like facebook is either. But rest assured if I had created it and was offered 1 billion I would have cashed the check before yahoo had time to think about it.
Hell, EBAY makes 1+ billion PROFIT a year.
"I predict this will be a b school case study of how not to do business.
Dude, take the money and run ! In another year your website will be worth very little as the fickleness of modern youth leaves you behind."
lol my thoughts exactly. Reminde me of that Simpsons ep. where Homer holds all of his stock in pumpkins until november...
In the article they say that's what Yahoo estimates this social web page will make- one billion a year.
I'd still take the money though...
This site has become popular because myspace has perceived problems with predators and viruses etc.
I dunno about this one. One billion would work for me. OTOH, if someone is offering him that much for his fledgling business now, they must see it as being worth a lot more down the road to make an offer like that. If Bill Gates had done that, he wouldn't be worth what he is now. It's a risk you have to take but he may really be smart in turning it down. I hope he knows what he's doing to keep it running.
Make that 120 million. Of course, a percentage of those are zombie profiles and spam sources.
Assuming you all are wrong, he could be worth $3, 5, 8 billion in a few years.
Assuming you are right, he has 2 shots at $1.6 billion (or 2 billion), once on the way up, and then on the way down. Just makes sense to me to turn it down.
And of course, Google is the rule, not the exception.
Social networking comes and goes. $1 billion a year in profit (according to Yahoo, supposedly) won't go on indefinitely. Chances are, you'll make more by simply conservatively investing your $1.6 billion.
Remember the web of recent memory? Whatever happened to Napster? Will iTunes go on indefinitely? You can take the Google route and simply "adapt" another's technology (Altavista).
This kid would be very smart to take the money and run. Be a billionaire and never have to work again.
Facebook has 90%+ penetration of the college market, the most valuable consumer demographic there is. That's worth an insane amount of money. Is Facebook a passing fad? Possibly. But social networking is a valuable commodity that's here to stay. In any event, the comparison to Napster is bizarre -- Napster was shut down by a court order, not by changing fashions. That's unlikely to happen to Facebook.
A billion dollars for a website? I would have signed the deal in blood and bought a South Pacific island.
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