Business Week reported today that Facebook - my personal favorite social networking site - is on the auction block. The owners of the privately held company have reportedly turned down one offer for $750 million and are valuing the company at $2 billion (!). At the same time, Yahoo! news reports that Google has just released $2 billion more in stock. When I saw that, I had the exact same thought as Rob Hoff who thinks it’s a no brainer that the 100 lb. Gorilla on the Web is going after the 100 lb. Gorilla in the world of social networking.
The question is, what will Google do with the app once it’s got it? Obviously Facebook is a great place to sell targeted ad space - but if it remains in its current form, you can’t count on it to continue at this level of popularity. For people to stay engaged with it, Facebook is going to have to keep getting cooler. Google’s a pretty innovative company, it will be exciting to see what it does to build the service up.
Let’s just hope they don’t accidentally delete all my friends and photos.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
The New Business Blog 03.30.06 at 5:43 pm
Wow, that is really amazing that something as “simple” as facebook could be valued for as much as $2 billion!
Jorjengo 02.19.07 at 3:42 am
should google buy facebook?
$2bn? pah, that’s merely a poo in the pants.
why don’t googz just buy facebook and leave the other god-awful social networking sites in the dust, i.e. xuqa (whatever that may be), myspace (literally impossible to know what’s going on), facebox (oh dear…), bebo (no comment needed), faceparty (HELLO?!?!?!?!?! 2007 HERE BABEZ!!!!!!!!) oh and google; NOBODY USES ORKUT!
so that’s a yes from me.