Microsoft sends signals to Facebook regarding acquisitions

Microsoft dropped clear hints in order to gauge whether Facebook, the popular social networking site, would be open to acquisition or not. The talks for such an acquisition were first and foremost published on the site All Things Digital that is owned by Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones.

Facebook spokesperson Brandee Barker refused to comment on the reported publication and subsequent rumours. Microsoft officials were also not available for any kind of verification in this regard. In October last year Microsoft acquired a $240 million stake in Facebook as a result of which the value of the start-up was gauged at $15 billion. This news came just a few days after Microsoft failed in its offer to buy Yahoo! for $47.5 billion. The basic target of that proposal was to put together an online advertising powerhouse that will challenge its powerful opponent Google Inc.

Facebook was founded in 2004 by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg. It has become one of the most popular sites on the Internet thanks to its huge user base and novel social networking avenues it offers to them. Facebook is estimated to have almost 70 million active users. In the past, Zuckerberg has showed his apparent reluctance towards offloading the stake in the firm, instead opting to work towards an initial public offering (IPO).

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