Rumors are afloat on the blogosphere once again and this time it doesn’t involve Google, Microsoft, or CBS. The rumor is that Yahoo! wants to up the ante on its own previous offer for the major social network, Facebook.com.
The previous acquisition rumors include Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook.com turning down a $750 million offer from Viacom and a $1 billion offer from Yahoo.com. Yahoo! still dominates the market for search according to Alexa (rank #1 globally).
Facebook currently has over 25 million users and recently unleashed its applications engine for developers, code-named F8 (“fate”). Will Facebook actually sell itself? I doubt it.
I read this article about a month ago in the magazine, Fast Company and there was a quote from Zuckerberg saying:
“If you sell your company, that is the exit. That’s just not how we think about it.” He followed by saying: “There are ways that you could do it, but right now, we’re focused on building this. And if you look at the stats we have, it’s been a good decision so far.”
Facebook has roughly 200 employees or more and has been opening up new ideas constantly, why would they cash out now?
When comparing the reasons why Skype or YouTube may have sold themselves out, you have to think about their track records.
Skype may have sold themselves to eBay because they may have needed the money to fight court cases against the RIAA over illegal music file-sharing via P2P on their previous software, KaZaa.
YouTube was also busy being sued over illegal music videos, TV shows, and movie clips appearing on the video streaming website. Facebook does not really have any legal liabilities as of right now.
As long as Zuckerberg still has VC funding, the drive, and the lack of greed, Facebook will live on…
