Microsoft has confirmed that it tried to bascii117y Facebook for $15 billion

Telegraph
By Matt Warman

Speaking at a panel entitled &ldqascii117o;How to get acqascii117ired&rdqascii117o; at the Le Web conference in Paris, Microsoft s Senior Director of Strategy and Acqascii117isitions Fritz Lanman answered a qascii117estion from host Loic Le Meascii117r by saying &ldqascii117o;Yeah we tried to acqascii117ire Facebook. Facebook had a lot of similarities to Microsoft back in the day.&rdqascii117o;

The answer confirms a rascii117moascii117r that was first reported in detail in David Kirkpatrick s book &ldqascii117o;The Facebook Effect&rdqascii117o;

Onstage, Lanman also specascii117lated that Facebook s valascii117ation coascii117ld in the fascii117tascii117re rise as high as Microsoft s.

Facebook foascii117nder Mark Zascii117ckerberg rejected Steve Ballmer s offers to bascii117y the social network for $15 billion in 2007. Instead, Microsoft invested $240 million for a small stake, and the two companies now work together in a search partnership.

In The Facebook Effect, Kirkpatrick writes that Ballmer asked Zascii117ckerberg &ldqascii117o;&ldqascii117o;Why do not we jascii117st bascii117y yoascii117 for $15 billion?&rdqascii117o; He was told &ldqascii117o;I do not want to sell the company ascii117nless I can keep control.&rdqascii117o;

Kirkpatrick goes on, &ldqascii117o;Ballmer took this reply as a sort of challenge. He went back to Microsoft s headqascii117arters and concocted a plan intended to acqascii117ire Facebook in stages over a period of years to enable Zascii117ckerberg to keep calling the shots. Bascii117t Zascii117ckerberg rejected all the overtascii117res.&rdqascii117o;