Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer made an audacious $15 billion bid for Facebook, according to one of the company's executives.

Speaking at the Le Web conference in Paris, Microsoft's senior director of corporate strategy and acquisitions, Fritz Lanman, admitted the company made an unsuccessful bid for the social networking firm in 2007.

"Yeah, we tried to acquire Facebook,” Lanman replied when asked whether Microsoft had made a reported $15 billion offer, according to a report on TechCrunch "Facebook had a lot of similarities to Microsoft back in the day."

The $15 billion figure was first reported in David Kirkpatrick's book The Facebook Effect. Ballmer was allegedly discussing a potential investment in the firm with founder Mark Zuckerberg, who told the Microsoft boss that the company was attracting investors at a $15 billion valuation.

"Why don’t we just buy you for $15 billion?” Ballmer reportedly asked Zuckerberg, who declined the offer because he wanted to keep control of the company.

Microsoft instead bought a 1.6% stake in Facebook in 2007, allegedly as part of a plan to take over the social network in stages.


Read more: Microsoft made $15 billion bid for Facebook | News | PC Pro http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/363526/micr ... z17hupPHAC

I doubt that Facebook are worth that now.

This is a nice way of saying "hands off, we want Facebook to be a success".

Yes and no. Microsoft have been very successful in some areas, so no guarantee that they would mess this up. Though personally I think that social media is grossly overvalued by the stock-market. They are barely profitable and yet have valuations well in excess of future earnings forecasts would sustain.

I agree. It's probably worth a whole lot more than that now.

Mark

$15b? I'd have sold up in a heartbeat.

Outside of their Windows monopoly, most of what they've done has been incredibly unsuccessful. Facebook, rather like the mobile space and the internet in general, is not within Microsoft's comfort zone. Microsoft's ownership of the site in a fledgling state would have doomed Facebook.

Now I'm no MS cheerleader but I'm pretty sure MS have had some success in other areas.....

Hotmail
Business applications i.e. office suites, SQL, etc
Gaming sucesses on PC and console
Internet Explorer
PC Hardware e.g. Keyboard & mice
and recently a very well received new phone OS

I had a look at the price. In 2009 it would have been only worth $6 billion though it has climbed considerably since then,



With this years revenue between $1.2 and $2 billion it is worth more than 12 times turnover. It is still not making a profit even with 500 million users. So is it really worth all that much?

For accuracy, and as someone who's used it since it used to be HoTMaiL (HTML, y'see?), MS bought that one, sometime around the end of the 90s.

"Worth" is a relative term. To you and me, no, it's probably not, but to someone who could utilise it to a given goal and harness any perceived potential, then yes, it is.

Mark

Facebook has apparently massive infrastructure so that would be worth its replacement value at the very least which is probably in the billions. It would have additional added value because of its 5000 million users, which would be very valuable to some. Though probably not worth tens of billions. As it is now cash flow positive it is worth more because of that. Though I do feel that most shares are seriously overvalued and only held up because of the huge liquidity that central banks have flooded markets with. Even so Facebook is probably still worth billions.

Hotmail - it has done ok, but it isn't a recent development.
Business applications i.e. office suites, SQL, etc - Not so much "success", more about nefarious business practices. Clicky
Gaming sucesses on PC and console - caught asleep at the wheel on PC gaming Clicky
Internet Explorer - really just forced on people, but market share is falling briskly.
PC Hardware e.g. Keyboard & mice - meh
and recently a very well received new phone OS...that nobody is buying...Clicky

5000 million users. One 0 too many perhaps?

Business apps is something they have done pretty well. I can't off the top of my head think of any such app thy have made that wasn't basically somebody else's idea, but in many cases they do end up with the best product. Active Directory, Exchange, Office and many others are basically good products, arguably the best of their type.

It seems to me that Facebook is a lot like Microsoft and Google. They didn't invent social networking, they just somehow ended up at the top of the pile. and crucially, they have about a bazillion-squillion users. They will no doubt work out how to monetise that audience, and become just as obscenely rich as their peers. This will presumably involve advertising, and a lot of shady bollocks like letting advertisers buy privileged access to your data. So the shady tricksters at MS would be the perfect corporate daddy for them.

I don't mind though, as long as it keeps Murdoch's Myspace investment insolvent.