4 ms·

Microsoft didn't offer 15bn... they invested a couple hundred million (~250mm, if I recall) to buy a certain percent of the company. That led to a 15bn valuati

• hugh3 16y ago
  They also got something else (an exclusive contract of some kind, I can't remember exactly) for that $250 million, so the $15B valuation was always phony.
• anamax 16y ago
  From http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/06/technology/facebook_excerpt_full.fortune/ http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/06/technology/facebook_excerpt_... But Ballmer had come with something more sweeping in mind. "Why don't we just buy you for $15 billion?" he replied, according to a very knowledgeable source. Zuckerberg was unmoved even by this offer. "I don't want to sell the company unless I can keep control," said Zuckerberg, as he always did in such situations. Ballmer took this reply as a sort of challenge. He went back to Microsoft's headquarters and concocted a plan intended to acquire Facebook in stages over a period of years to enable Zuckerberg to keep calling the shots. Zuckerberg also rejected that offer. The deal that was struck was for $250M at a $15B valuation