Microsoft may buy part of Facebook
Wow, I go to lunch with my parents and the entire world shifts due to a Wall Street Journal report that Microsoft may buy part of Facebook which would value Facebook at $10 billion or so.
Too bad that Microsoft’s management didn’t listen to Jeff Sandquist and others two years ago.
Funny, you know Dave Morin? He works at Facebook on the app platform now but used to work at Apple. He told me that he tried to get Apple to pay attention too. But got frustrated with Apple’s inability to get Facebook. So, he left to join Facebook.
What’s funny, he told me, is now a good percentage of Apple employees are on Facebook. At the latest Apple press conference I noticed that Steve Jobs even showed off the iPhone Facebook app on stage.
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September 24th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Scoble, isn’t it obvious? Facebook would never have become the all-important web platform it is today had it been subsumed into the Redmond behemoth! As someone who cares very much about the future of Technology and the Web, I am hoping this is nothing but a rumor. We do NOT need further consolidation. Facebook staying independent is important for our industry.
September 24th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Yeah, MSFT should have listened to you and others years ago. But perhaps this is the beginning of a new era at Microsoft. A global holding company of cool stuff. Think about Bungie, Facebook, etc. and the list can grow of companies that MSFT could “own” but not touch, therefore not infect them and screw them up. Enough of that and the company would be cool again. (not holding my breath BTW)
September 24th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
|| Too bad that Microsoft’s management didn’t listen
|| to Jeff Sandquist and others two years ago.
Why ??
Regards, Roman
September 24th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
[...] surprised that this has so much attention at this stage (from Valleywag, Mathew Ingram, TechCrunch, Scoble, Om Malik, [...]
September 24th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Meh.
September 24th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
[...] http://scobleizer.com/2007/09/24/microsoft-may-buy-part-of-facebook/ [...]
September 24th, 2007 at 6:05 pm
Microsoft or not, Facebook will be dead in about five years anyway. These fads simply don’t last.
September 24th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
@Christine - Mircosoft meddling will kill it faster though. Too bad… it has come in handy for finding old college friends. Maybe this time I can do a better job of keeping track of them and move the contact info into the next fad.
@Autodidact - I totally agree. I am so glad Microsoft did not crush them before now.
September 24th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Google should just buy Friendster for their killer social networking patents and then sue the pants off of Msft/Facebook….
oops! that would make them evil though :-)
September 24th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Microsoft should buy Facebook and manage the acquisition similarly to how they handle Bungie.
September 24th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Hey Scoble,
Why does this Daniel guy keep writing filler responses so he can redirect to his spamsite. And no, he’s not the lil Mac kid.
September 24th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
It’s a simple Facebook pump and dump tactic, WSJ being the duped proxy, leak details, push up the price. If Microsoft dares spill cash on this latest hype, so much the worse for them, they have already taken a few bullets to the brain in their Google and faddish envy.
September 25th, 2007 at 2:03 am
Ryan: I blocked Daniel’s messages as spam. Sorry about that.
Doknir: big companies don’t get small ideas before they get big. Read “Innovator’s Dilemma.”
September 25th, 2007 at 9:27 am
Microsoft is spending billions to become the #2 hottest games console on the planet.
I’m sure this could help Facebook becomes #2 as well.
September 25th, 2007 at 9:35 am
[...] to build a competing network. The strategic partner angle is also why Apple makes a bad partner, despite what Scoble thinks. Yes, they are the l33t style leaders, and they have a vocal community, but it is largely an [...]
September 25th, 2007 at 10:32 am
Robert, Joe Wilcox on Microsoft Watch is rethinking his earlier comments that Microsoft would ruin Facebook by integrating it into its stack. He now sees Facebook as an operating system for the Internet–something Microsoft is sorely lacking. Do you think that’s a good analogy?
September 25th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
[...] så er jeg super glad over at høre, at Microsoft måske køber sig ind i det seneste halve års mest hypede web 2.0.-virksomhed: Facebook. Hvis rygterne passer viser det langt om længe, at Microsoft er ved at blive gode kapitalister [...]
September 26th, 2007 at 6:35 am
Microsoft is just trying to do their best to ensure that Google’s new open API doesn’t get as much buss as it can. It’s not the first time Microsoft has butted heads with Google, and the Facebook/Social Network ownership is just another example of this.
September 26th, 2007 at 8:56 am
responding to Christine comment: I don’t think it’s a fad.
When application are made by the users themselves, it has far reaching ‘value’ to it. People know what they want and get an application made
5 years down the road, I would still be on Facebook like I did with Friendster back in 2002 when it started
September 26th, 2007 at 9:56 am
I see facebook as a great asset. Microsoft is making a strong move in the right direction if this goes through.
September 26th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
we can now easily create our own Facebook application - for our profiles, or for it to become a viral [marketing] campaign.
I blogged about it on my site: http://www.personalbrandmarketing.com/2007/09/25/make-your-own-facebook-application-easily/
~ Vikram
PersonalBrandMarketing.com
September 26th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
I am a big fan of FaceBook. I am a big fan of MSN. But if you combine them, which I am pretty sure Microsoft would, it would simply take the fact of how specialized FaceBook is, because it would end up being blended with stuff that is NOT social networking. I also have a feeling that the reason FaceBook did not want to join Microsoft or Apple when it started (and hopefully they don’e want to now) is because just having the name associated with them would lower their reputation. I am a big fan of Microsoft, and a hater of Apple. Some people are the opposite. but either way, with everything you hear about big companies, it would be hard to believe they would put enough effort into maintaining FaceBook.
September 27th, 2007 at 3:07 am
how funny, I had to re-read that headline.
for a moment in my head it read like:
“Microsoft may BURY part of Facebook”
funny how our minds work…
September 27th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
How do you buy part of a site? I would be interested to see how this will work.
September 28th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
No wonder I can’t get anyone at Microsoft to pay attention to us! :-)
September 28th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
Is Microsoft still a monopoly?
October 13th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
[...] Adam Ostrow wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptWow, I go to lunch with my parents and the entire world shifts due to a Wall Street Journal report that Microsoft may buy part of Facebook which would value Facebook at $10 billion or so. Too bad that Microsoft’s management didn’t … [...]
January 22nd, 2008 at 4:03 am
[...] for $6 billion valuation, drastically Microsoft has made a very strategic move. They bought $240 million for 1.6 percent of the [...]