Facebook Ready To Seal The Deal -- But For Only $1 Billion

from the maybe-they-really-are-slackers dept

Thu, Sep 21st 2006 8:22am — Carlo Longino

What happened, Facebook? Just a few months ago, you were following the Skype inflated buyout plan to order, setting yourself up with a $2 billion price tag. Now comes word that you're ready to sell out to Yahoo, but only for $1 billion. Come on, guys, you're leaving that other billion on the proverbial table! Never mind that you're only pulling in $100 million in advertising as you struggle to figure out how to monetize your traffic, or that you beautifully illustrated the fickleness of social-networking site users at the beginning of the month, when you pissed off a good chunk of your users by broadcasting all their activity on the site -- don't sell yourself short. After all, you've got a hastily arranged ad deal with Microsoft to pump you up, even if it's worth less than a quarter of what MySpace got from Google. Or is this all just a part of the game, designed to kick off a frenetic bidding war, or to create buzz for an IPO? After all, the WSJ says you're considering "following the example of Google... [which] became a publicly traded juggernaut with a market capitalization of $120 billion." Of course, Google actually did figure out how to monetize its traffic pretty well, but who's counting?

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17 Comments

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Steve E, 21 Sep 2006 @ 9:17am

I think if I owned Facebook I'd get rid pretty quick. Their PR isn't the best at the moment and I think they need a bigger more established name behind them to succeed.
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Blaise, 21 Sep 2006 @ 11:08am

I think if you used facebook, you'd understand that there's more than just a 'trendy teenage' thing going on, and they are actually doing some really interesting things in terms of how social networking technology can be effectively used and used in more ways than it has been so far.
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jon cable, 21 Sep 2006 @ 11:12am

face book rules, who are you kidding?
facebook rules. i use it to find out all the personal info on people i am interested in. myspace sucks. little kids can actually make private accts there. facebook lets me see all the kidz info, pics etc. it's much harder to chicken hawk and lie about my age to teenies on myspace. facebook has let me score so many times. just hoping i don't walk into one of those setup shows. but outside of that risk face book is way worth the money. to me anyway. anything that helps me score with the preteens. let me know if you got anymore sites that i can stalk on.
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- Anonymous Coward, 21 Sep 2006 @ 11:19am
  
  Re: face book rules, who are you kidding?
  Jon Cable obviously has never used facebook. There are more privacy settings on facebook then myspace. Plus, you can not even look at the profile of someone not in your network unless you friend them. I want to know where you came up with this stuff.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Sep 2006 @ 11:52am

Facebook is teh ghey
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Sep 2006 @ 11:55am

How many billions can you make with a few servers
Hell yeah! It's 1998 all over again! Anyone wanna buy my Kozmo.com stock?
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swati, 21 Sep 2006 @ 12:03pm

i can't wait till this bubble bursts

ah, how we never learn from history
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anonymous coward, 21 Sep 2006 @ 12:13pm

if your core customers expect you to stay small and exclusive, but aren't willing to pay for your service and will abandon you if the business grows, you don't really have much of a growth business now, do you? and those pesky VC guys that own your ass, sure expect alot of growth.

this is the classic deal with the devil of start-ups and venture capital. self-funded with a realisitic scope, this could be a very successful business for a small group of people. as a VC funded company with delusions of grandeur it is destined to fail.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Sep 2006 @ 12:21pm

butt book
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Sep 2006 @ 12:21pm

butt book
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Nathan, 21 Sep 2006 @ 12:35pm

Money
Who cares you are just jealous that you didn't act on the idea. Mark Z will make more money then u will see in a life time!
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Grandfather Time, 21 Sep 2006 @ 12:45pm

with it's stalker quirkiness, it does not appeal to some people, as they see it as just another site to jump on the bandwagon that was started so many years ago by the likes of myspace and its predecessors......... anyway, if they sell, they sell,.........who really cares?
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Sohrab, 21 Sep 2006 @ 1:01pm

If a company honestly pays more then $300 Million for a company like this (To me, its not even worth the $100 Mil its pulling in), that company needs to rethink wtf its doing. Just because its got the buy power, dosent mean it should.

Being a college student, I dont think big companies understand how much we dont give a f$@* about facebook or myspace. its just a Fad. The minute our lives pickup, we will move right along and all we do on those sites is post stupid stuff. Nobody will actually care about their adds or click on them.

$1 Billion!?!....jesus
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- Elldin, 21 Sep 2006 @ 1:22pm
  
  Re: We do use it... you just don't
  Sohrab, I am a college kid, I have recently moved about 400 miles away, and out of state. Facebook is a great way for me to see what my friends are doing through the picture features, as well as message my close friends I knew for almost 13 years. I think big companies do infact care about what we think. Facebook had a security issue a couple of weeks ago, facebookies banned together and told facebook we didn't like the new feature. 4 days later, it was taken off.
  
  Sohrab, I hate to tell you, but our lives are as fast as ever, we are using things like this, because we live in a fast paced world we don't have time to drive home and go to that college party with our friends. Facebook has created a SAFE, place for college kids to connect and know whats going on in our friends lives.
  
  Remember the stories your parents had about how they wished they always stayed in touch with that highschool sweetheart, or that best friend. Facebook and cell phones make that possible.
  
  Its worth every penny, and is the safe way to connect with friends. You don't understand, because you don't know. You don't use it. I do. And my friends do.
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  - Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased), 22 Sep 2006 @ 7:37am
    
    Re: Re: We do use it... you just don't
    Elldin,
    You were in college for 13 years? I think doctors do eight!
    
    If you think you need Facebook to "keep in touch" with your good friends, your wrong. If anyone was your good friend you would actually want to communicate with them directly. There are plenty of already existing ways to do that. ie.email, phone, etc.. All Facebook does is allow you to know what your friends are doing. They blog a little of their doings and you and everyone else can go see what they put up. In fact, Facebook is a lazy persons communications. I am your good friend but I won't bother to talk to you directly. Just look at my profile and you can see what I am doing. I feel so touched by my friends little blog, it is as if they really care that I know what they are doing. I think I'll add you as friend, you must really know me well.
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Sohrab, 21 Sep 2006 @ 3:25pm

Yes indeed, Facebook is so safe that colleges went around and used the pictures students posted to ban them or suspend them. Amazingly safe. Yes its nice to stay in touch but there is so many different services....oh like Email, Myspace, Friendster, Oster, Xanga, MSN's service, Where are they now.

The choices are huge. Secondly, I dont care how much you use it, this is business, not your best friend. Companies want to make money, not tickle you. Facebook is a company that dosent bring in real profit. Not the level somebody would be willing to pay for it and like anything else, its a fad. We all went along just fine without Facebook and many colleges still dont have Facebook.
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- Anonymous Coward, 21 Sep 2006 @ 10:25pm
  
  Re:
  Many colleges? Um.... I'd put good cash on it that most do...
  I'd say 80% or more. So what if there out to make money? Big deal, its worth something. Hell, if there asking a billion dollars, you know it has to be worth more then a couple million. Hilarious, you have no concept of what college people want, we like simple easy to use things. It comes down to this, if we like it, we are gonna use it. And, I can bet good money that facebook will be around for a very long time. Regardless of who owns it, we don't care. We are just there to use it.
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