Microsoft has just announced that they have acquired 1.6% in Facebook for $240 million. That’s a valuation of $15 billion for the overall company. It will be interesting to see if the numbers are justified – Google went from $23 billion to $210 billion since its IPO while Skype’s $2.6 billion price tag has seen a recent write down of $900 million by eBay. Either way Mark Zuckerberg joins his fellow Harvard drop-out and makes $3 billion in the process…
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There’s a nuance in that valuation that must be considered though.
It appears that for $240 M, Microsoft got 1.6% of Facebook AND 1/2 of advertising revenue outside the United States from selling banner ads, and they already have the deal with Facebook for within the United States, and whatever else is cooking between the two.
That’s a bit of a twist that makes the extrapolation to a value to $15 Billion a little difficult to justify, as there’s some strategic considerations at play here. In fact, the whole thing just seems a little odd.
Comment by Denis Hancock - October 25, 2007 12:52 am
Next question is whether this adds Microsoft live search to Facebook - suddenly giving Facebook a much stronger foundation as a platform.
Comment by Dan Herman - October 25, 2007 9:39 am