Report: Google Enters Facebook Sweepstakes

by Ken Schachter on 24 October 2007, 13:21

Categories: Computers - General news - Media - Internet - Finance
Topics: google , microsoft , accel , Greylock , Wall Street Journal , FaceBook , Ken Schachter

 

Google has entered the race to lavish up to $1.5 billion on Facebook.

The search colossus, which already operates the Orkut social network, is seeking to cut off Microsoft at the pass and take a 5-10 percent stake in Facebook, according to a report in Wednesday’s New York Post. The Post said a deal with one of the tech giants could be announced within 48 hours.

By Wednesday afternoon, The Wall Street Journal  Online edition offered a similar account, saying the deals proposed by the two companies would assign a value to privately held Facebook of about $15 billion.

The investment, expected to be part of a new funding round, would be a coup for Facebook venture capitalists, which include Accel Partners and Greylock Partners.

Facebook, with 48 million users, is expected to announce an advertising initiative in November in a bid to turn more online traffic into revenue. Microsoft has a deal to run Facebook's banner advertising program until 2011.