Microsoft's Facebook Deal Might Make Sense If It's An Ad Subsidy... But What About The Hedge Funds?

from the still-scratching-my-head dept

We had some good comments on yesterday's post trying to do the math on Microsoft's $240 million investment in Facebook, for just 1.6% of the company. A few people pointed out that if you ignore the ownership part, and just think of it as something of a marketing statement for Microsoft's ad network, then perhaps it could make some sense. Maybe. Since the deal does come with a big advertising deal, if Microsoft thinks of the $240 million as a marketing spend or ad subsidy with the chance of eventually having some payback then it could potentially make sense -- depending on how valuable Facebook ads turn out to be, and whether or not it then helps Microsoft sign up additional ad partners. However, what's a lot more difficult to figure out is the corresponding rumor that on top of the $240 million from Microsoft, two hedge funds combined to dump another $500 million into Facebook at the same valuation. It's been reported that Facebook had been looking for $750 million, but those hedge funds don't get any of those additional benefits that Microsoft gets. For them, the best has to be on the fact that Facebook is going to be worth a lot more than $15 billion at some point in the relatively near future. That seems like an awful lot of money to bet on a risky situation without that much upside.
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Filed Under: ad network, hedge funds, social networks
Companies: facebook, microsoft


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  1. identicon
    anuj, 25 Oct 2007 @ 2:09pm

    microsoft is getting desparate

    The deal values Facebook at $15 Billion...Microsoft is getting desperate

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    matt, 25 Oct 2007 @ 2:56pm

    are these hedge funds related to MS in any way? what are the names of the funds?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. Somethings up

    Nobody puts this kind of money into anything without a full game plan that has details we can only speculate about.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    Mike (profile), 25 Oct 2007 @ 7:05pm

    Re: Somethings up

    Nobody puts this kind of money into anything without a full game plan that has details we can only speculate about.

    That's what people said about eBay buying Skype, and we all know how that worked out.

    It's also what people said about AOL buying Time Warner.

    There may be a plan, but it if you do a little math, it's not hard to see that there are very few options here and they're all betting on a very risky scenario.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Scott Lawton (Blogcosm), 26 Oct 2007 @ 6:09am

    agreed

    I'm surprised how many bloggers ran with the $15B valuation story when the stock isn't really what Microsoft is after. Note that if hedge funds do invest, it may NOT be at that valuation -- i.e. I'll bet that the actual public statements of all concerned leave enough wiggle room for MS to have gotton 1.6% PLUS other considerations that are deemed to have value. And/or the hedge funds will get some sort of downside price protection.

    BTW, a typo: "the best has to be" = "the bet has to be"

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Microsoft's Facebook Deal, 27 Oct 2007 @ 8:54pm

    Microsoft's Facebook Deal

    It is good how Facebook.com accepted the cash bonanza from Microsoft but I hope they maintain a tight grip and control of their company otherwise their fate may end up being similar to Excite.com or Web TV. Sometimes a misfortune may disguise itself as a blessing.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Manoj Kumar, 28 Oct 2007 @ 7:14am

    MS / FB joined hands

    Its primarily a deal for microsoft to place ads on facebook website. By accepting 1.6% in addition, they seem to have obviously helped FB to raise its value. Its a strategical give-away of 1.6% by FB to MS to increase its valuations. Microsoft simply helped the situation.

    NICE!!!

    link to this | view in thread ]


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