Gates keeps face
Web 2.0, Internet Marketing
25 October 2007
Bill Gates' Microsoft has bought the international advertising rights on social network site, Facebook.
The corporation beat Google to the prize and will take a $240 million stake in the site's future financing deal.
The companies agreed a US-only alliance in 2006, which they recently extended till 2011. Microsoft will now have exclusive access to a site that has approximately 50 million members.
Kevin Johnson, president of the platforms & services division at Microsoft, said:
"The opportunity to further collaborate as advertising partners is a big reason we have decided to take an equity stake, and is a strong statement of our confidence in the long-term economics of this partnership."
However, Microsoft may face some opposition from members of the Facebook community who are unhappy with the deal. One group has already formed on the site calling itself, 'If Facebook sells to Microsoft, we're leaving'.
Facebook is valued at $15 billion and is the second largest social network behind MySpace, which was bought by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in 2005.
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