Author: bibi
Ignored by Yahoo, Microsoft Pokes Facebook
Thursday, May 8th, 2008 @ 5:20 pm
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Just as talks with Yahoo were falling apart, Microsoft sent out the feelers to Facebook to see how willing the social network would be to sell itself, according to a couple of reports.
Facebook is a fairly obvious acquisition target for Microsoft, which already owns a 1.6 percent, $240 million stake in the site. Ballmer also identified Facebook as one of a handful of web properties that have the scale Microsoft is seeking.
Still, we wonder whether Microsoft would be willing to cough up $15 billion for the social networking site.
Sure, Facebook is cheaper than the $40-plus billion Microsoft offered for Yahoo, but Facebook has had a difficult time generating revenue, and it’s still a fledgling business vulnerable to users’ whims.
All the excitement may be for naught, though — the “informal” talks are “inactive” according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Facebook development is just a small piece of news in a sprawling, complex drama. Yahoo, left by its lonesome after Microsoft aborted its takeover attempt, is also weighing its lack of options.
Although it was widely assumed that Yahoo would outsource its search business to Google, now some Google execs are having second thoughts about any such arrangement, according to the Wall Street Journal.
And in the meantime, Yahoo is also talking with Time Warner about combining AOL with Yahoo; while Microsoft is reportedly also talking to News Corp. about divvying up its web business and combining it with MySpace and Yahoo, according to the Journal.
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