 On Wednesday, Reuters reported that leading software manufacturer Microsoft has been eyeing Facebook, reconsidering the social network’s interest in a possible partnership. According to the article, “Microsoft’s bankers put out subtle signals to Facebook,” but no official meetings have been held as of yet. Not a bad idea, if you ask me. These two top players, if joined, would create quite a powerful force to be reckoned with. While Facebook isn’t the leading social network – trailing closely behind MySpace – it certainly has considerable ground in the industry, and seems to increase its popularity every time it introduces a new application or message feature. Microsoft, as you may know, has been nursing a bruised ego after an Yahoo!s epic refusal for acquisition. The search company denied Microsoft for nearly three months, citing that the bid, which repeatedly fluctuated between $41 and $47 billion, underrated its overall value. Perhaps a clean start with a hot service like Facebook is just what Microsoft needs. In fact, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen these companies mingle… back in October of 2007, Microsoft purchased a 1.6% stake of the social network, valuing it at $15 billion. The stake, worth $240 million, was a pivotal step for Facebook, which had previously rejected bids from both Yahoo! and Google. Then again, that was only 1.6% piece. Reuters commented that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has previously “resisted selling the entire company, opting to work toward an initial public offering.” Who’s to say Facebook won’t deny Microsoft as it did the competitors? No comments yet from Facebook spokeswoman Brandee Barker, and Reuters maintains that Microsoft representatives were not “immediately available for comment” so, as usual, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see… any bets to place that this is another cyber “mating dance” in the making? |
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