Microsoft buys EXPENSIVE but very small chunk of facebook.

[Shayne]

For the tidy sum of $240M Microsoft got a 1.6% stake in Facebook.  Do the math folks and you will get a $15B value for that website.  Absolutely astonishing.

[Thorin]

Yup.  And last year Microsoft arranged to be the only advertising reseller on Facebook in the US.  http://www.adweek.com/aw/iq_interactive/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003051697

And before that (or was it after?) Yahoo made a $1B bid for Facebook, which the CEO of Facebook declined.

Microsoft and Google were both battling for partial ownership of Facebook, up to 10%.  I guess Microsoft made the best offer?

And still, I have AdBlock so I see almost none of the ads.  And the ones they place in the News Feed I just completely ignore...

[Lazybones]

RIM is getting in on Facebook as well
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyid=2007-10-24T193640Z_01_N24487523_RTRUKOC_0_US-RIM-FACEBOOK.xml

[Thorin]

The problem is, it's all based on advertising revenue.  So is there really money to be made in online advertising, or are more and more people switching off the ads with ad blockers?

[Lazybones]

Doesn't matter companies can also make huge money profiling you through the 3rd party facebook apps.

[Thorin]

Oh, yes, those apps I don't install.  And no, I don't want to join the Werewolves or the Vampires.

[Shayne]

I only have a few applications installed and run AdMuncher along side so ya, im not seeing any advertisements and I also dont participate in any of the pay or premium applications.  Their are those that Ive seen with 50 applications installed and all sorts of blinking lights and shiny thingies.

Good for them over at Facebook.

[Shayne]

This makes Facebook the 5th most valuable US Internet Company...

[Tom]

15 billion? hah. Then why can't they fix all the bugs in the interface and api?