Facebook and Microsoft getting cosy?

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Microsoft, Social Software

Facebook and Microsoft getting cosy?

by Nik Fletcher Jul 14th 2007

There's been persistent rumours for as long as we can remember about Facebook being the object of Yahoo!'s desire, with founder Mark Zuckerberg reportedly turning down offers in the region of $2 BILLION. Yes, two billion dollars. However Microsoft, apparently keen to make inroads with their some-what floundering Windows Live initiatives, is rumoured to be wanting Facebook, and badly. So badly that the price being whispered is around three times the price Yahoo offered: a whopping $6 billion dollars.

As InsideMicrosoft mentions, it makes a lot of sense for Microsoft to be interested in Facebook, however they also fail to mention one other small thing that this might, just might, be about: adverts. Facebook's audience is vast - it's not just University students using Facebook - and the Facebook site would provide an easy way to expand Microsoft's Advertising network onto one of the most popular sites on the web. No doubt it would please a lot of Microsoft Advertising folks to have the massive Facebook network on their books, providing them with an inroad into Google's dominance in web advertising, not to mention a huge exclusive audience for Microsoft to offer advertisers.

As ever, this is all rumours but one thing to note is that, if the Microsoft warchest is opened to buy Facebook, the deal will make a large dent on Microsoft's cash reserves, if these April 2007 figures are anything to go by.

Tags: buyout, facebook, merger, microsoft, rumors

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Dave said 7:54PM on 7-14-2007

Microsoft and Facebook signed a three year agreement for Microsoft to provide and sell ads for Facebook last year in August.

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