Microsoft 'mulls Facebook stake'
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Microsoft is in talks to buy a stake in the social networking site Facebook, the Wall Street Journal says.
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Yahoo has apparently offered $900 million for social networking site Facebook, media reports indicate. The offer is still being considered and negotiations said to be ongoing.
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Social-networking site Facebook is in  serious talks to sell itself to Yahoo  for an amount  that could approach $1 billion, The Wall Street Journal  reported on Thursday.
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Candid about Microsoft's expansion plans, the CEO was cautious when discussing the Facebook partnership and competing with Google search.
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Yahoo Inc's board of directors is to  meet on Friday to discuss Microsoft Corp's $44.6 billion buyout  offer, the TechCrunch blog said, citing unnamed sources.
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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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Microsoft may end up having to raise the amount it is willing to pay for Yahoo if the software company&#39;s stock continues to drop while Yahoo&#39;s continues to rise.In the week since&#160;Microsoft made its surprise bid for Yahoo, the price Microsoft is willing to offer the Internet company has dropped by nearly 7 percent as Microsoft&#39;s share price has fallen. In the meantime, Yahoo&#39;s shares have risen in value, trading at nearly the $31 per share Microsoft was willing to pay, making the company potentially worth a higher asking price and the offer vulnerable to higher bids.Microsoft announced its offer to acquire Yahoo on Feb. 1, saying it would pay $31 for half of Yahoo&#39;s outstanding shares and 0.9509 of a Microsoft share for the other half. Microsoft&#39;s half-cash/half-stock offer to Yahoo was valued at about $44.6 billion at the time it was made.The stock half was based on the $32.60 Microsoft share price at the end of Thursday, the day before the deal was announced last Friday. Yahoo&#39;s share price at the close of market on Jan. 31 was $19.18. The cash half of the deal was $22.3 billion, which, when considering Microsoft agreed to pay $31 per share, is based on half of Yahoo&#39;s outstanding shares being 719,354,838.Microsoft has not publicly said what number of outstanding shares it has based its offer price on. In its form 10-Q filed Nov. 9, 2007, Yahoo&#39;s outstanding shares as of Oct. 31, 2007, were 1,336,444,034. However, cutting that number in half and multiplying it by Microsoft&#39;s $31 per-share offer adds up to $20.7 billion, not the $22.3 billion in cash Microsoft is offering.By Friday afternoon, Microsoft&#39;s share price was down about 12 percent at $28.40. Based on that price and assuming that 719,354,838 is the other half of Yahoo&#39;s outstanding shares -- and then factoring in the $22.3 billion cash offer -- the amount of the bid stands at $41.7 billion.Microsoft&#39;s stock is likely down due to its offer for a number of reasons, said a financial analyst who was interviewed Friday and asked not to be named. Investors may not be happy with the money Microsoft is willing to pay for Yahoo, and&#160;strategic questions surrounding how the companies will pull off a merger&#160;successfully also are driving the stock down.Moreover, the deal is expected to dilute Microsoft&#39;s earnings in fiscal 2009 and perhaps even in fiscal 2010, so the company&#39;s earnings predictions likely will come down, the analyst said.On the other hand, Yahoo&#39;s stock has been buoyed by speculation there could be other, higher bidders for the company now that Microsoft has shown its hand. Yahoo stock has risen nearly 34 percent since the deal was announced; on Friday afternoon it was trading at nearly $29, which is only slightly lower than the current per-share for the stock half of Microsoft&#39;s offer.Microsoft has declined to comment about whether it will adjust its offer so that the final amount of the deal will be the original $44.6 billion offered. The cash half for the time being remains the same, sources close to the company said Friday. However, this could change in last-minute dealings if Microsoft&#39;s stock continues to lose value while Yahoo&#39;s rises, and other companies offer competitive bids for Yahoo in the meantime.
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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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Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. recently discussed swapping its MySpace social-networking site in exchange for a large stake in Yahoo, according to published reports.
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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.
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It's hard to determine what's more surprising about Microsoft Corp.'s investment in Facebook Inc.  -  the appraisal that valued a 3 1/2-year-old Internet hangout at $15 billion or the rare snub of online search leader Google Inc
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Microsoft is rumored to be interested in investing in Facebook, in a deal that would value the social network at $10 billion or more. Just what else could you buy with $10 billion? It's the GDP of Bolivia, for starters.
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The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft may take a stake of up to $500 million in social network, which could push valuation toward the $10 billion mark.
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Microsoft Corp  is talking to  Facebook about buying a minority stake in the fast-growing  online social network that could value the company at $10  billion or more, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web  site on Monday.
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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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Software dinosaur Microsoft paid millions for a tiny piece of trendy internet property Facebook. But the company needs something to make it hot again
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Microsoft has approached FacebookÂ in recent weeks proposing an investment that would give Microsoft a stake of up to 5 percent in the popular social-networking company, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.