Thursday, September 21, 2006

Facebook to Sell to Yahoo for $1B?

[Via TechCrunch]

WSJ reports that "people familiar with the matter" are saying that Facebook has been in acquisition discussions with Yahoo, Microsoft and Viacom over the last year, but Yahoo is looking like the front runner, with a price tag of $1B. That's B like billion.

This is Web 2.0, baby, alive and kicking.

I remember a couple years ago reading an article about how Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's then-20-year-old founder, had been offered $100M for the site and wasn't interested. He'd said something along the lines of "I'm just having too much fun with it." I'd thought him a total moron. Who the hell walks away from $100M because they're having too much fun? Have fun on your 18 yachts for the rest of your life, retard.

I'm done dispensing free business advice now.

Here are some amusing items from the article:

During one series of talks with Microsoft, Facebook executives told their Microsoft peers they couldn’t do an 8 a.m. conference call because the company’s 22-year-old founder and chief executive, Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg, wouldn’t be awake, says a person familiar with the talks. Microsoft executives were incredulous.

And another:

At one point in the Yahoo negotiations, the talks extended into the weekend, says a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Zuckerberg, this account continues, said he couldn’t take part because his girlfriend was in town. Others pointed out they were closing in on a billion-dollar deal. Mr. Zuckerberg said it didn’t matter: his cellphone would be off, this person says.
I'll tell you, man, if the job of Mark Zuckerberg's girlfriend becomes available in the near future, count me in.


And since I've now cruelly subjected you to more than 3 or 4 words about technology and business, here's a palate cleanser:

Paris Hilton can't remember how she knew who broke into Joe Francis's house and forced the Girls Gone Wild producer to sodomize himself. It was two years ago. She's "not like that smart."

Also:

Nirvana's Nevermind came out fifteen years ago. Yeah. You're that old.