Microsoft May Buy 5% Stake In Facebook

Sep 24, 2007 at 4:18pm ET by Barry Schwartz

The article Microsoft Is in Talks To Buy Facebook Stake from the Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft is in talks with Facebook to place a 5% stake in the company, putting the valuation of Facebook at $10 billion.

The Wall Street Journal said that Google “also expressed strong interest in a possible Facebook investment,” so there might be a bidding war taking place over Facebook.

A few months back we reported that Yahoo May Buy MySpace For 25% Stock Swap, but nothing on that news yet. Is this Microsoft/Facebook deal going to happen? The Wall Street Journal claims that people close to the deal say that it is way too early to tell. Microsoft, Facebook, and Google have not made any statements on this report as of yet.

More coverage on the Microsoft/Facebook deal at Techmeme.

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.

See more articles by Barry Schwartz >

Share, Bookmark & Discuss This Article
More:

See more stories like this in the Members Library! Check out the Facebook, Microsoft: Business Issues sections of the Members Library where this story is filed. Members also get access to exclusive video content, a members-only weekly & monthly newsletter, plus more. Check out all the benefits!

5 COMMENTS ON Microsoft May Buy 5% Stake In Facebook

Toivo Lainevool, September 24th, 2007 at 4:46 pm ET:

I think you got that a little wrong. It’s not a $10 billion dollar stake, it’s a 5% stake that would put the valuation of Facebook at $10 billion. A $10 billion valuation is crazy enough, the way you reported it gives Facebook a $200 billion dollar valuation!

JonKelly, September 24th, 2007 at 4:48 pm ET:

Barry, the headline and the first paragraph aren’t quite right. According to the article MSFT is looking to take a minority stake that would value the company at $10BN. Still, an amazing valuation for a private company given their current revenue.

wildewon, September 24th, 2007 at 4:52 pm ET:

You have your numbers mixed up.. MS is not considering a $10 billion stake in facebook. MS is considering a $300-$500 million stake in facebook.

Depending on the percentage of the company MS would acquire with the $300-$500 million (up-to 5%) this would give facebook a total valuation of $10 billion +.

rustybrick, September 24th, 2007 at 5:20 pm ET:

Geez, Ill fix the headline… Although it may have read a bit off, technically, I did not say MSFT is giving Facebook $10B. I said they are getting a stake of a $10b company. But I will clear it up…

Thanks! :)

JonKelly, September 24th, 2007 at 5:31 pm ET:

Barry, thanks for chaning that up! Just for the record, I didn’t see the other comment when I posted mine — I think we all had the same instant reaction and it took the system a bit of time to put all of the comments up.

FREE DAILY SEARCH NEWS RECAP!