Microsoft Buys Facebook Stake for $240M

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Microsoft ponied up $240 million for…get this…a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook. What the?!?! I dig Facebook as much as the next guy but is it seriously worth $15 billion? What do you guys think?

The deal announced Wednesday after several weeks of negotiation values Palo Alto-based Facebook at $15 billion — less than four years after Mark Zuckerberg started the online social networking site in his Harvard University dorm room.
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Microsoft certainly has gone completely loco. There is no way that Facebook should be worth even close to that much
 
How much is it worth to advertise/know everything about all us kids? Write an application for facebook, kids install it and grant access to know all about them.
 
MySpace is valued to be anywhere from $10 - $20 billion within the next few years (FYI: News Corp originally bought MySpace for $580 million... back in 2005)

Facebook is not as popular but I can believe that's how much is going to cost to get some ownership in the company.

Personally I don't care how much money those sites make, I rather invest my money in R&D for new site concepts and web technologies.
 
A toe in the door, just in case it does become huge.

Facebook gets a NICE cash infusion. Win

MS gets a stake and I wouldn't be surprised if their was some tech trading hands behind the scenes. Win

240 million is nothing to MS, seriously. Look at how much they threw away in the EU as essentially cost of doing business.
 
I'll be honest, ever since Facebook opened up to everyone (it was originally just college students) it's gotten incredibly lame. At first it was an exclusive thing, now it's just as annoying as myspace. :rolleyes:
 
Hurdler said:
I'll be honest, ever since Facebook opened up to everyone (it was originally just college students) it's gotten incredibly lame. At first it was an exclusive thing, now it's just as annoying as myspace. :rolleyes:
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Yeah but now noobs don't have access to HTML. It has to stay white and blue and without gay fucking pictures.
 
dam i think we need to get a hard book or some thing going have it be face book for geeks and in few years we all be millionaires lol.
but dam how can facebook be worth 15bill?
 
thax said:
dam i think we need to get a hard book or some thing going have it be face book for geeks and in few years we all be millionaires lol.
but dam how can facebook be worth 15bill?
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Advertising, those stupid "applications" people are using, and groups
Those are some things I see that companies want in on to make money, get their name out there, or to just get a piece of the action.
 
thax said:
dam i think we need to get a hard book or some thing going have it be face book for geeks and in few years we all be millionaires lol.
but dam how can facebook be worth 15bill?
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It's not just how much it is worth, but how much it will be worth in a few years time.

$240m is enough to make a reasonable profit without the possibility of it being a massive flop.
 
yea facebook did become terrible once it opened up and now that its added applications its just as bad as myspace
 
the owner turned down a 1billion dollar offer a few years back claiming i didnt fit into his 10 year plan, sorry buddy, in 10 years you wont exist, just as the next social site comes out anmd surpasses Facebook, just look at the past.


What happened to the lawsuit his friend were doing against them claiming they stole the code...
 
Whats face book? I have read about them in the news, but I still dont know what they do. Are they like myspace?
 
This sounds like .com balloon nonsense again. It's becoming so typical of the business world to over value something they don't understand.

Where is the business plan that supports $15 billion in value? What... advertising? Please... when will wallstreet learn how fluid and trend-like the web is. The next big thing will steal all the precious eyeballs. And pretty soon all these kids are going to realize that their information is worth money, and they arent going to want to give it away.

How can a company with no chance of ever making $15 billion be worth $15 billion?
 
Forums and instant messengers is about as close to "social networking" as I get, other than this thing called "outside".
 
Facebook has always been lame. What's the point? I have my own name for it that involves the phrase 'communists' and 'secret society', but it isn't forum friendly :p
 
Hurdler said:
I'll be honest, ever since Facebook opened up to everyone (it was originally just college students) it's gotten incredibly lame. At first it was an exclusive thing, now it's just as annoying as myspace. :rolleyes:
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QFT.

I signed up for it due to the exclusivity and the fact that it was NOTHING like myspace... now, since they opened up.... it became a myspace :rolleyes:

I deleted all my information since then and kept it pretty dry with hardly any checkups... it's just too much like myspace atmosphere.
 
Lame or not, NPR said Facebook has (I think) 49 million users and the deal values it at $15 billion. It's a lot better than Myspace, and it's essentially "what you do" when you reach college. That's guaranteed growth every year on a large scale.
 
GJSNeptune said:
Lame or not, NPR said Facebook has (I think) 49 million users and the deal values it at $15 billion. It's a lot better than Myspace, and it's essentially "what you do" when you reach college. That's guaranteed growth every year on a large scale.
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Not anymore. Facebook is open to anyone now... not just to college students.
 
I'm in college. I avoid it like the plague. I remember the first week it showed up in mass on my campus, it was terrifying. People signing up and sharing all this information and bad pictures about themselves. I've actually contemplated if it could possibly really be a government program to collect and monitor the youth of America. They gladly provide loads of information, connect to eachother to show you who is 'friends' and post what they're up to, legal or otherwise. I realize that's a bit foil hat like, but....
 
In my last couple years at my school, Residence Life administrators would scour Facebook for photos of students doing illegal things, usually underage drinking, and then they'd bust them. It got really bad, and everyone was outraged. I don't know how bad it is now though.

I registered like a year after it hit my school, but I rarely visit it anymore. Only if I get an email saying someone messaged me or wrote on my wall. Facebook's always had a good focus on security. You have a lot of freedom, but you can heavily restrict what information of yours is made public. Hell, they started converting your email address to an image very early on! :D

Anyway, I hate the new apps, which are stupid, cumbersome, and apparently quite a security risk.

It might be lame and used mostly by immature high school students and horny frat brothers, but $15 billion is pretty nice. ;)
 
havand said:
I'm in college. I avoid it like the plague. I remember the first week it showed up in mass on my campus, it was terrifying. People signing up and sharing all this information and bad pictures about themselves. I've actually contemplated if it could possibly really be a government program to collect and monitor the youth of America. They gladly provide loads of information, connect to eachother to show you who is 'friends' and post what they're up to, legal or otherwise. I realize that's a bit foil hat like, but....
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You are not that far off:

http://www.lsus.edu/career/announcements_details.asp?ID=43

http://www.campusprogress.org/features/769/what-you-dont-know-about-facebook

Tons of more info about it.
 
If your a photographer the part i found out, any images you post on facebook, facebook and all advertisers / 3rd parties associated to facebook, and such have FULL rights to any content you uploaded to your account and are free to use it as they wish.

So much for rights.
 
MrGuvernment said:
If your a photographer the part i found out, any images you post on facebook, facebook and all advertisers / 3rd parties associated to facebook, and such have FULL rights to any content you uploaded to your account and are free to use it as they wish.

So much for rights.
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Really? That's pretty lame. Where'd you learn that?
 
MrGuvernment said:
If your a photographer the part i found out, any images you post on facebook, facebook and all advertisers / 3rd parties associated to facebook, and such have FULL rights to any content you uploaded to your account and are free to use it as they wish.

So much for rights.
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Just sign a piece of paper giving your right to someone else. A relative/whatever. You can't give away rights that belong to someone else.
 
Well, I can say one thing: It is worth the exact amount that it sells for. So yes, it is worth that much.
 
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