Microsoft proposes buyout of Yahoo. Facebook next?
On 1 February 2008 Microsoft made an unsolicited takeover bid to buy Yahoo for US$44.6 billion dollars in cash and stock. If this deal materializes it will be the largest technology take over ever.
But more interestingly is that this deal leaves the door open for google to make a large acquisition since Microsoft would be temporarily out of funds.
A couple months ago I hypothesized that Google could and should acquire Facebook for $30 billion dollars. Everyone dismissed me as being an idiot, but with Microsoft paying a 60% percent premium for Yahoo would it be so unreasonable for Google to buyout Facebook? Google, a $180 billion dollar company, certainly has the capital to initiate such a large deal, and it would give Google near dominance over the social networking market.
Google’s efforts to enter the social networking arena have been met with failure. Orkurt is only popular in Brazil, and Open Social hasn’t gotten off the ground or materialized into anything meaningful. Just like the acquisition of youtube in 2006, Google’s only option to make any meaningful inroads with social networking is to make a large acquisition, namely buying out Facebook for $30 billion or more.
Only time will tell, but I am 99 percent certain Facebook won’t be ignored…
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