Microsoft is negotiating to buy a stake in social networking site Facebook that could value the company at $10-billion or more, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
The report said that Microsoft is keen to buy a 5% stake in the company, but is facing competition from Google.
Facebook is used by more than 40-million people to set up their own personal web pages, to communicate with each other and to share photos and videos. It is expected to have a profit of $30-million this year on revenue of $150-million.
Microsoft and Facebook already have an exclusive agreement signed last year under which Microsoft serves display ads to Facebook, which brings in about $75-million for Facebook this year and a total of at least $200-million to $300-million until 2011.
Facebook was founded in 2004 by Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg (24) to enable fellow students to communicate with each other. It gradually expanded to other colleges and now has open enrolment. — Sapa-dpa