Microsoft invests heavily in Facebook

So what does $240m buy you these days….? Quite a lot if you are talking about Microsoft’s investment into Facebook. A 1.6% share of Facebook valued at $240m was bought today by Steve Balmer and co., which means they have valued Facebook at an actual price of $15bn. WOAH! $15bn for Facebook, thats 5 times what Google paid for Doubleclick, thats 19 times the purchase price of MySpace by Fox. All this for a site thats only be running for around three years, and has only started booming in the last year.

So what has $240m actually bought?  Exclusivity to european media deals and ad sales, with a whole lot of raised eyebrows. What it really means is that Microsoft were prepared to pay silly money to keep out Google from the Facebook platform, and they have done this with some force. It is being called a “strong statement of confidence in the partnership“, but I feel it was alomst down out of fear that Google may get some sort of hold on the European Ad part of the Facebook. Microsoft is clearly supporting Facebook’s growth and this really demonstrates that Zuckerberg was right in holding off from an original $1bn valuation from Yahoo.

Matt Bamford-Bowes