Rumor of the Day: Microsoft for Facebook for $6 Billion
No, of course we can't confirm it. But it makes sense, don't you think? Steve Ballmer, desperate and furious, sick of sucking wind in the Internet game, sick of losing every Internet in-play company and much of the future to You Know Who, sick of feeling like a has-been also-ran, raiding the bank account and snapping up the hottest company on earth.
The fly in the ointment: $6 billion's a nice fat number, but it's only 1/25th of Google's valuation, and the Facebook folks clearly think they're worth more than that. So maybe Steve will have to throw in another $5 or $10. Or $20. Or maybe Mark Zuckerberg will just tell him to go...home.
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Posted by: Bill Shepherd | July 10, 2007 at 06:22 PM
yep, Steve better make sure it's the best offer they can put on the table... the other alternatives will be a big fat IPO and a counter from Google.
more thoughts on Facebook World Domination & acquisition offers from GOOG & MSFT here:
http://500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/2007/06/facebook-world-.html
- dave mcclure
Posted by: Dave | July 11, 2007 at 06:45 PM
Sounds like another self-fulfilling prophecy. Like AMZN going to $400, there and back again...
Party like it's 1999!
Posted by: Quattrone | July 12, 2007 at 10:51 AM
Good to see a return to the type of irresponsible rumor-mongering you offered in the last boom! Nice!
Posted by: Phil | July 13, 2007 at 10:33 AM
Ex-Paypal Peter Thiel is behind the Facebook and he is looking forward IPO with more than $10 billions.
Posted by: Jason Vu | July 13, 2007 at 04:16 PM
So I guess that's the real starting point of Bubble 2.0?
Posted by: Emmanuel Deloget | July 15, 2007 at 12:32 PM
>> the type of irresponsible rumor-mongering
C'mon. Facebook, and in fact following YouTubes $1bn purchase in under a year, EVERY web startup has got to spend a bit of time thinking "What figure would I / we sell out for, and to who?". It's hardly rumour-mongering - it's hardly news ;)
Facebook have a sizeable, quality, active membership. You can make a half-convincing case that they are starting to define the social media space, and whilst I don't think they'll quite get as far as becoming a verb, their impact may turn out to be comparable to Googles'.
They might also have that rarest of beasts, a business model... If they can encourage the Facebook apps industry to grow, and get people used to paying for at least some of them, that could be a solid, non-ad-revenue source of income.
A lot of people laughed when the concept of paid search was introduced "Why on earth would I EVER pay for the traffic I get for free now?". Some of those people are now PPC experts
Posted by: TallTroll | July 18, 2007 at 05:47 AM