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While I do not have a WSJ link to the full article, basic info on the potenital deal is presented on their website front page [online.wsj.com] and an additional article can be found here [thestreet.com].
Yahoo Inc. is in serious talks to acquire Facebook Inc., the Palo Alto social networking site that allows users to post profiles online and gab, according to a published report.If the deal is completed, Yahoo could pay up to $1 billion for the Web site, according to a Wall Street Journal report published Thursday.
Yahoo may pay $1 billion for site: Offer for Facebook being considered, according to report [sfgate.com]
[edited by: walkman at 1:36 pm (utc) on Sep. 22, 2006]
A lot of money for something an avergae Webmaster like me has never heard of before...
That's OK in their eyes; you're not the target market. Ask any US college undergrad if they've heard of Facebook. If they have not, that's when it's scary.
Seriously, Yahoo!, if you've got an extra billion lying around, I've got a social network site for you...scrambles to place a few thousand dollar ads on major sites and on p0rn networks
huge mistake IMO. $1 Billion can go a long way to build it's own service.
Yep. I was seriously considering investing in Yahoo a while back, thank god I didn't. Instead of Yahoo concentrating on improving their existing revenue streams, they just throw money at problems by acquiring other companies for extreme prices.
With investing this money into their YPN and YSM they probably would be making more money right now. Heck, project Panama would have already have been released instead of sitting in the background.
Smells like a rotten egg.
In a case like this, I can see a large company buying the user base, and then using yahoo ad's everywhere to generate money. However, the site looks like hell, doesn't offer anything, and is pretty much a baby on the net.
Maybe it's deeper than that....
Maybe a close friend to a CEO at Yahoo! owns or has major stake in that site, and they're using corporate politics to get a large chunk of money in their pockets.
Yeah... i've seen the second scenario a hundred times before. Thats what I'm banking on.
Thank god I don't have stock in that company.
7.5 million.
1 Billion dollars for 7.5 million users.
Thats 133 dollars per user?
I have 1057 users, does that mean I can sell my site to Yahoo for 140,000 dollars? :-). Did I do that right?
They have some amazing figures, 7.5 million users and something like %80 percent login and use the site EVERY DAY. That's a lot of eyeballs looking at ads.
The type of users are extremely valuable too, 18-25, university students are a pretty hard to reach demographic. I think Facebook is pretty much unique, there is no other medium that has such reach in this demographic.
In the Ivy League colleges in the US it has close to %95 takeup and it's a similar story in Britain, the top 20 or so universities have close to %100 of the students registered, with a large proportion of them using it every single day, for extended periods of time. For this kind of audience, $1billion seems reasonable.
I'm at university and facebook is a way of life, it's used constantly for socialising, gossip, arranging events every day at all hours of the day. People use it more than their mobile phones.
Don't you guys know any college students in the US?
Second, even with children, the odds of have sons/daughters in college age are as narrow as having them in prekinder garden.
My case: outside of the US and children under 5. My friends? same situation, small children, even my friends on USA.
It is an odd one.
Frankly i think the social media phenomenon could well be a bit of a FAD and burn out within a few years, but currently, as of now it certainly pulls in a lot of interest thats for sure.
To be honest, ive always thought these kind of sites including the likes of myspace etc, were in truth a way for students and young kids to self promote themselves to find new partners and friends - thats all. I cant see any point to them other than that, hence why i think they are a Fad. Once you get over a certain age you dont want all you details plastered all over the net and value your private life more.
Certainly i dont know anyone over 30yrs old who can be bothered with them and i for one dont like them i think they are a waste of time and im active in the net industry.
So, the test is will those using it now, be using it in say 5 or 10 yrs time?. My view is they wont be and Facebook are probably getting out at the right time.
Meanwhile imo with no real trading history in terms of stickyness with age behind facebook other than a few years trading on the internet, the price looks very high to me and i cant see why Yahoo would need to spend this kind of money on this kind of business when they could roll out their own facility for less and tack it onto 360, If social media proves to burn out as a fad they will have lost nothing and if it carries on as a raving sucess they can always go for it or a similar business at a later time if their own version doesnt cut the mustard.
Without seeing the financials of Facebook i dont know how profitable it is or what upside it has from here, but no matter how good it is i cant see Facebook ever having a valuation multipal greater than this current price.
I guess you either love or hate social media sites - for me im in the not interested camp and 1 billion is an excessive amount of money thats for sure
Only recently have they had some huge bumps in the road because of several new features that, in essence, made it way to stalkerish.
Facebook is a giganitic internet social networking site. Most people that I know where using it before MySpace, though Facebook may lose some allure by allowing anyone with an email address to use it instead of just students. For those of you who graduated college before 2005 you may not know what Facebook is but believe me, it is a beast!
If those that graduated know nothing of facebook pre 2005 and anyone over say 35 isnt interested in social networking sites and Facebook is aimed at students then where is the stickyness for the long term?
Surely this type of site has to be a fad for the young untill they have less time on their hands to bother with it?.
My point is that Yahoo have no long term history for this site, they dont know if users will get fed up and move to the next craze, just like CB Radio for example!.
I think if facebook can sell out for 1 billion they will have done well to get out whilst they are ahead and i cant see Yahoo getting any good return on investment however, as one poster here said (good point) if its purchased with overvalued stock then its no so bad!
In the future I am sure that the format may change from time to time however human beings needs to socialize will never cease to exist.
(Note: Facebook also assists those that are too shy in public to be able to socialize to meet and talk to people they may not otherwise talk to and can be a great networking site, a la myspace.)
Surely anyyone who makes a living building and/or marketing websites would have a working knowledge of how these sites are changing the web.
Yes, sure, we've heard the "true" version of the story behind MySpace...not the one "geek started it in the garage and everyone loved it".
