Microsoft: “Yeah, We Tried To Acquire Facebook.”

Thursday, 09 December 2010 16:31

Microsoft: “Yeah, We Tried To Acquire Facebook.”

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While on the “How To Get Acquired” panel here at Le Web, Microsoft Senior Director of Corporate Strategy and Acquisitions Fritz Lanman admitted that Microsoft did try to acquire the social network Facebook in acquisition talks first reported by David Kirkpatrick in his book “The Facebook Effect.”

“Yeah we tried to acquire Facebook”Lanman responded to Le Web founder Le Meur, Facebook had a lot of similarities to

Microsoft back in the day.”

Kirkpatrick quotes Steve Ballmer offering Zuckering $15 billion also alluded to by Le Meur onstage. Microsoft ended up investing $240 million at that valuation instead because Microsoft would not sell. Microsoft and Facebook currently work together in a search partnership and Bing users can view information about their friend’s likes.

Lanman also theorized that Facebook’s valuation could one day be as high as Microsoft.