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Microsoft to Pay $240 Million for Stake in Facebook

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the facebook-laughing-all-the-way-to-the-bank dept.

Nrbelex writes to mention The New York Times is reporting that Microsoft has beat out Google and Yahoo for a 1.6% stake in Facebook. The investment will cost Microsoft $240 million valuing the total site at somewhere around $15 billion. "The astronomical valuation for Facebook is primarily evidence that Microsoft executives believed they could not afford to lose out on the Facebook deal. Google appears to be building a dominant position in the race to serve advertisements online. Fearing it might lose control over the next generation of computer users, Microsoft has been attempting to match and in some cases block Google's plans, even if that effort is costly."

3 of 277 comments (clear)

  1. The next Big thing, again by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    After hearing so much about mySpace I finally surfed it, set up a page and looked around. It's all rubbish. People ask to join your list of friends to spam you and the interface is clunky at best. I think such a site would be a good idea, but their implementation falls short of the mark by leagues.

    Along comes Facebook, cleaner interface, perhaps better ability to keep crap from showing up in comments or messages people send you. Hopefully if you are spammed there's an actual admin who gives them the boot, though it's quick and easy to join so an abuser will likely create accounts as needed for pest purposes. When rot sets in people will leave and go to the next big site, leaving mySpace and Facebook to host an ever shrinking group willing to put up with crap.

    Two hundred forty! Million! Dollars!? IIIIII'mmmmmm the CAAAAAT! Seriously this is great news for those who hold ownership in this site, they'll rake in a very considerable profit.

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    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  2. to translate by User+956 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Fearing it might lose control over the next generation of computer users, Microsoft has been attempting to match and in some cases block Google's plans, even if that effort is costly.

    In other words, they didn't spend $240 million for 1.6% because Facebook is worth $15 billion. They paid $240 million because they're in the middle of a pissing match with Google.

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    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
  3. Re:good thing many people have the sites sourcecod by Dionysus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    it was hacked recently and many people are making clones from the exact source Isn't having the source pretty irrelevant? Isn't the community, as in the people using the site, that matter? You could create an exact same site using the same code, call it, Friendster, and if nobody shows up, does it matter?
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    Je ne parle pas francais.