Microsoft Buys Stake in Facebook
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The investment ends two months of jockeying among Microsoft, Google and Yahoo for the right to invest in and forge close ties with the fast-growing social networking Web site.
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Rich Zygler asks in one of his recent blog posts, if Microsoft purchasing a 240 million dollar chunk of Facebook is a good thing for the language it's written in - PHP.   Microsoft is buying a piece of Facebook. What do we all think this means for PHP since Facebook is one of the "web 2.0" leaders built on PHP? The way I see it, [there] are [six] options.   Among the possible outcomes he lists are things like Microsoft rewriting the site, Facebook continues as it is or (next to impossible) Microsoft sees the error of its ways and fully embraces open source.
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Microsoft Corp on Friday said it had offered to acquire Yahoo Inc in a proposed cash and stock deal valued at $44.6 billion.
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Microsoft Corp beat out Google Inc on Wednesday in a battle to invest in socializing Web site Facebook, agreeing to pay $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in the Web phenomenon.
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Microsoft Corp. has  agreed to pay 94 million yuan ($12.3 million) for a stake in  Sichuan Changhong Electric Co., a major maker of televisions  and electrical appliances, the Chinese company said on Monday.
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Microsoft Corp is in talks to buy up to 5 percent of Facebook in a deal that could value the fast-growing online social network company at $10 billion or more, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
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US software giant Microsoft has agreed to buy a stake in major television maker Sichuan Changhong Electric for 94.1 million yuan (12.3 million dollars), the Chinese firm said Monday.
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Microsoft Corp  is talking to  Facebook about an investment in the company that could value  the fast-growing social network at $10 billion or more, the  Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site on Monday.
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The Wall Street Journal says Microsoft has proposed an investment that would give it a stake of up to 5 percent in Facebook.
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SAN FRANCISCO -- Rapidly rising Internet star Facebook Inc. has sold a 1.6 percent stake to Microsoft Corp. for $240 million, spurning a competing offer from online search leader Google Inc.
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Social networking site Facebook Inc. has bought Parakey Inc., a tiny startup that had been developing software it bills as a Web-based operating system.
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SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK  - Microsoft Corp   made a bid to buy Yahoo Inc  for $44.6 billion in cash  and stock, seeking to join forces against Google Inc   in what would be the biggest Internet deal since the Time  Warner-AOL merger.
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Microsoft Corp  said on  Wednesday it would pay $240 million for a 1.6 percent minority  equity stake in Facebook in a deal that values the popular  social networking Web site at $15 billion.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft Corp. will invest in Chinese electronics maker Sichuan Changhong Electric Co. Ltd. as part of a project to link televisions and consumer entertainment devices with the Internet. Microsoft China agreed to buy 15 million newly issued Changhong shares at a price of 6.27 renminbi per share, according to a Changhong filing (in Chinese) with the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Microsoft's planned stake in the company is worth 94.1 million renminbi (US$12.3 million). Changhong's announcement follows an agreement between the two companies, signed Friday, to cooperate on a project called Media Galaxy. The goal is to develop, manufacture, and sell televisions, computers and digital entertainment products that connect to the Internet, Changhong said. It did not offer further details. Terms of the investment deal require Microsoft to hold on to its Changhong shares for at least three years.
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Like rival lovers, Google and Microsoft are intensely courting Facebook as the social-networking upstart picks petals off a flower -- &quot;she loves me, she loves me not&quot; -- and tries to decide which of the two will be allowed to buy a minority stake in the company, according to press reports.The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post reported Wednesday that Facebook will likely make a decision within a day or two, and that the chosen company will also get a deal to provide ads for the social network&#39;s sites outside of the U.S.Google, Facebook, and Microsoft all declined to comment when contacted by IDG News Service.Founded in 2004, Facebook&#39;s popularity has skyrocketed during the past year or so. Its user ranks have increased to about 47 million active users today from 12 million in December. More than half of its active members return to the site daily.As such, it is perceived as an attractive vehicle for online advertising, although some industry experts question how effective social-networking sites are for advertisers.In a social-networking site, particularly one as restricted as Facebook, people mostly visit the pages of their acquaintances, to see their latest comments, photos, and videos.For Facebook, MySpace, and other social sites like YouTube and Flickr, it&#39;s still unclear whether enough advertisers will feel comfortable running their ads on pages with potentially objectionable material whose creation is largely unregulated and created by millions of individuals.Facebook will likely share ideas for revving up its advertising business on Nov. 6, when it holds an event in New York to which it has invited what it calls &quot;its closest advertisers.&quot;&quot;As part of [the event], Facebook executives will discuss new approaches for advertising online,&quot; a Facebook spokeswoman said. &quot;We are not sharing any further details.&quot;In addition to the advertising questions, Facebook, MySpace, and others are in the crosshairs of law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad because sexual predators use social-networking sites to stalk and victimize people, in particular minors.Still, Facebook is the Internet company with the loudest buzz now, and the anonymous sources for the Journal and the Post articles suggest that the price of the minority stake in play gives Facebook a total valuation of between $10 billion and $15 billion.Both newspapers reported that in addition to Google or Microsoft, other investors might be involved in the acquisition of the ownership stake.The Journal first reported Google&#39;s and Microsoft&#39;s pursuit of the Facebook investment a month ago.
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Nokia woos Facebook - report Nokia is in talks to acquire a stake in Facebook, according to Mobile Content News. The website reports that the two companies are mulling a development agreement which involves "porting the social network on to Nokia handsets in a major way".â¦
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Microsoft Corp. has approached Facebook Inc. in recent weeks proposing an investment that would give Microsoft a 5% stake in the popular social-networking company, The Wall Street Journal reported.