
Source: Microsoft wins Facebook bid battle - terpua
http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9803689-56.html
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samwise
Facebook is the Pets.com of the new bubble. Once facebook fails the bubble
bursts. They are paying for hype.You have to be able to make money to have a
valuation of 15billion. Facebook made 50 million this year.The valuation is
300x their income. whatever ...i'm going to bed

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mynameishere
News Corp paid 580 million for myspace. MSFT paid 240 Million for 1.6 percent
of facebook. ...guess which one of these companies has access to a financial
spreadsheet application?

Obviously, Microsoft can lose 240 million dollars without much harm, but this
unbelievable idiocy means that microsoft will either have a vast change in
management very soon or an untimely death.

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mattmaroon
News Corp got Intermix for bargain basement prices due to some good old
fashion shareholder swindling. News Corp probably had nothing to do with it,
but it was inarguably an artificially low price. Though even had they paid
what, at that time, would have been market rate, it still would have been an
infinitely better deal.

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idea
It's great for the people who founded Facebook, but personally i don't
understand Facebook's valuation other than the networking effect. To me it's
ridiculously overpriced. I wonder if that would make me less suitable to be a
startup founder.

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utnick
15b isnt too too expensive really

broadcast.com was once worth 4b, amazon.com is worth 40b

heck the value of google has INCREASED 50b in just the last 6 months

facebook is a VERY important site. where else can I go on the internet to
place ads targeted to a location AND interest. An insane percentage of those
under 25 have fb accts, and the whole next generation will be locked into fb
as they follow their older peers.

facebook has the internet on lock

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axod
Amazon sells stuff. Google makes money from a fantastic advertising business
model.

What does facebook do again?

No one clicks on adverts on facebook.

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rms
The banner ads aren't where they make their money, it's in the mini-feed ads
and the sponsored groups and beyond. Yesterday, Axe sponsored a free gift on
Facebook and now 250,000 profiles are permanently decorated with an Axe
advertisement.

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axod
Just wait until Axe realise their ROI is practically 0. Perhaps they can make
it work, I don't know. I do know that when I started seeing adverts in my
mini-feed I thought "For god sake it goes downhill now, I don't think I shall
be using facebook much longer"

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axod
Just to add:

Google made a great business model by placing relevant adverts along side
natural search results. People click on them because in some cases, they are
what they wanted to find.

Facebook advertising 'Axe' in my minifeed (Which is supposed to tell me whats
going on with friends etc), is totally wrong. It's like a popup. It's in no
way relevant. No one will click on it/care about it, and it'll just drive
users away to whatever's next.

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zain
A $240M investment on a $15B valuation means Microsoft gets 1.6%, probably not
the best outcome for Mark Zuckerberg. Looks like Facebook's investors are
trying to make sure their share doesn't get diluted any further.

Also, this is great. Valleywag predicted the announcement shortly before it
happened because the heads of PR at Facebook and Microsoft added each other as
friends today: [http://valleywag.com/tech/confirmed/facebook-and-
microsoft-f...](http://valleywag.com/tech/confirmed/facebook-and-microsoft-
flacks-make-friends-before-deal-announcement-314647.php)

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aston
I assume you got the "not the best outcome for Mark Zuckerberg" from
Valleywag, too?

I don't see why a higher valuation is "not the best outcome" for anyone
invested in Facebook. Unless things are structured oddly, Mark Zuckerberg is
being diluted as much as anyone else. Which is, not much at all. And wasn't
$250 million the amount they wanted to take?

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nickb
What a fine example of Winner's Curse:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winner's_curse>

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edw519
Sounds like $240 million a small price (for Microsoft) to pay to beat Google
at something.

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axod
'we can make stupider investments than you'? ;)

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mattmaroon
MSFT is letting their ego get the best of them here for sure. They'd be a
horrible poker player, which I guess might be why Bill, while the richest man
at the world, hung out at the $3/$6 tables.

