On his blog, Marc Andreessen points to two newspaper extracts that show either Microsoft playing the media on the views of Facebook, or that the guy in charge, Steve Balmer, ain’t really.
From the Times UK on Oct 2:
Steve Ballmer, the Microsoft chief executive, believes that the craze for individual social networks such as Facebook risks being exposed as a “fad”… [Ballmer] added that there was little in the way of technology to justify the lofted valuation attached to a site expected to achieve revenues of only $150 million this year.
From the Wall Street Journal on Oct 24:
Microsoft Corp. agreed to invest $240 million for a 1.6% stake in Facebook Inc. that values the social-networking site at $15 billion, beating Google Inc. in a closely watched contest.
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I think it was a shot off the bow, a negotiation play to help the Facebook deal.
Microsoft was surely in talks to invest prior to Oct second. Any acquisition or investment over a few million would pass by Balmer early.
Facebook may have even been shotting for a HIGHER valuation, and Microsoft wanted a show of strength. (the Ooct second quote got a fair amount of press)
October 29th, 2007 at 2:23 pm