Microsoft has beaten off competition from Google to pay $240 million for a 1.6 per cent stake in Facebook that values the popular social networking site at $15 billion. Microsoft will also sell internet ads for Facebook outside the United States as part of the deal that took several weeks of negotiating. Microsoft already provides banner advertising and links on the US site.

Mark Zuckerberg, 23, founder of Facebook, has indicated he would like to hold off on an initial public offering for at least two more years. Facebook hopes to become an advertising magnet by substantially increasing its current audience of nearly 50 million active users.

Other posts by :

1. US spectrum shuffle could earn SES billions
2. FAA plans to tax rocket launches
3. Could someone buy AST SpaceMobile?
4. FCC: D2C is set for ubiquitous connectivity
5. SpaceX continues complaints over Amazon Leo
6. Starlink struggling for approval on South Africa, India
7. Impressive Starlink deployment rate
8. Bank: Space industry worth $1tn by 2040
9. Xona Space wants 259 LEO satellites

Categories: Articles, Business, M&A