Acquisitions

Microsoft is about to make its way in the social network market soon, by purchasing 5 percent of Facebook's stock. The networking site of over 42 million members is going public in 2008 or 2009, and it looks like Microsoft in interested in investing around $500 million. Facebook's value has been estimated around $10 billion and the whole company currently belongs to its creator, Mark Zuckerman, who has repeatedly stated he doesn't intend to sell it. He refused a buying proposal of $1 billion from Yahoo last year, so we shouldn't be expecting a major acquisition any time soon. As for future plans, Facebook intends to make its profiles widely available on search engines, a radical shift from the site where everyone knew their personal information was safe. Privacy on social networking sites was already a hot topic, and things look like they are about to get hotter. Sites already functioning as people browsers are already boasting millions of results for searches, Wink currently having 217 million in its index. The purpose of these sites is to provide online advertisers with specific user profiles for custom-made ads, while sites like Upscoop look through one user's list of friends to find the sites they regularly visit. Google is also expected to join the bidding game for the site, as it had rivaled before with Microsoft for a 5 percent stake of AOL. Google won then, but now it might be time for Redmond's giant to emerge as the victor, especially since stakes are higher for them this time.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070925/ap_on_hi_te/microsoft_facebook;_ylt=Akid5QFufC3iTR8d9M9cjVas0NUE

by Corina Ciubotaru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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