Microsoft Buys Facebook Stake for $240M

[malware]

Rapidly rising Internet star Facebook Inc. has sold a 1.6 percent stake to Microsoft Corp. for $240 million, spurning a competing offer from online search leader Google Inc. Under the expanded strategic alliance, Microsoft will be the exclusive third-party advertising platform partner for Facebook, and will begin to sell advertising for Facebook internationally in addition to the United States.


“We are pleased to take our Microsoft partnership to the next level,” said Owen Van Natta, Chief Revenue Officer, Facebook. “We think this expanded relationship will allow Facebook to continue to innovate and grow as a technology leader and major player in social computing, as well as bring relevant advertising to nearly 50 million active users of Facebook.”

“Making this investment and expanding this partnership will position Microsoft and Facebook to better take advantage of advertising opportunities around the world, and is a great win for not only for our two companies, but also our collective users and advertisers,” said Kevin Johnson, president of the Platforms & Services Division at Microsoft. “We have partnered well over the past year and look forward to doing some exciting things together in the future. The opportunity to further collaborate as advertising partners is a big reason we have decided to take an equity stake, and is a strong statement of our confidence in the long-term economics of this partnership.”

Facebook continues to experience strong growth both in the U.S. and international markets; almost 60 percent of Facebook’s users are outside the U.S. With an average of 200,000 new users registering each day, Facebook continues to be one of the most-trafficked sites on the Internet.

On Aug. 22, 2006, the companies announced a U.S.-only strategic alliance that named Microsoft the exclusive provider of standard banner advertising on Facebook using Microsoft’s digital advertising solutions and the Microsoft adCenter platform. In early 2007, the terms were extended to 2011.

Source: Microsoft, Yahoo! News

[Grimskull]

Thats a hell of alot of money for a 1.6% share!!!!! Well done facebook.

[freaksavior]

wow, now there is no way i'll sing up for face book.

[jocksteeluk]

at least it isn't a controlling stake in the company, im am finding M$ website being filled with more and more clutter.

[WhiteLotus]

why would it buy a stake in Facebook? why? i see no logic in this

[surfsk8snow.jah]

So many active users, facebook's the most organized and simplest foundation of the personal page sites, and the main users of facebook are still college students, who have mommy & daddy's money to spend on things they see advertised on facebook.

[WarEagleAU]

I guess Google wasnt stupid enough to buy 1.6% stock for that amount of money

[Imperceptible]

Originally Posted by WarEagleAU

I guess Google wasnt stupid enough to buy 1.6% stock for that amount of money

Or not rich enough :P

[panchoman]

google's preety rich. they could easily afford it.

[surfsk8snow.jah]

Hmm good point WarEagleAU. I was wondering about that a little myself when I first read the story. I know for a fact there's a huge "my cock is bigger" war b/t google & MS... I know personally a high up in MS who defected to Google after Google sued MS.
I do wonder why Google backed off... or actually, if they got the chance to bid again. Facebook had a previous deal with MS, so maybe somebody did some negotiating to seal the deal before Google had a chance to counter-offer.

[Imperceptible]

Originally Posted by panchoman

google's preety rich. they could easily afford it.

No but you see, if they were richer, they might of paid more for it, even if it wasn't worth it, because they would of had so much money. ^^