I'm loving the Facebook rumors flying around here in Redmond right now - we've even got breathless reporting on Mark Zuckerberg sightings at the airport.
Microsoft is rumored to be paying $300-$500MM for 5% of Facebook, giving the social networking site a valuation of as much as $10B(!!). This, on $150MM in annual revenue, most of which is coming from MSFT already.
Facebook has enjoyed terrific growth, particularly over the last few months, and there's no question they've created something of value. That said, it boggles the mind to think that this site is game-changing enough to merit valuations in the double-digit billions. At the end of the day, this is an advertising-supported business that only six months ago was looking like an also-ran to MySpace. And, despite the robust growth, its users are characterized by low click-through rates on the site's advertising.
All this is by way of saying that Facebook would be insane to pass up an investment in this range, given the hefty valuation and nominal percentage of the company involved. The interesting part - and the area where a deal could fall apart for Facebook - is what kind of minority rights (or ancillary commercial deals) Microsoft gets along with its investment. $500MM is chump change for Microsoft; they can certainly take a flyer on Facebook - but they aren't going to do so unless the integrative side of the deal allows them to leverage Facebook across their other lines of business. Look for the details on this once the smoke clears on the crazy valuation.
