With many Internet companies selling out to large corporations, people everywhere are speculating which company will be the next to go. One Internet company that has been receiving a lot of attention recently is Facebook. However, despite many offers, it seems that Facebook doesn’t plan bite the corporate bait anytime soon.
According to a Wall Street Journal article published on Oct. 12, 2006, Facebook declined an offer from Yahoo for about $1 billion.
Facebook declined to comment on why it turned down Yahoo’s offer. But many believe it is holding out on the offer in hopes of getting a higher offer or even promises that the site will not change in any respect.
“I feel like more and more people are joining Facebook all the time, and it will only become bigger as time passes. Why would they sell now?” said Gary Mendez, a sophomore economics major.
Although Yahoo and Facebook have been discussing a deal for just under a year, this final offer came just days after Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Less than a year ago, MySpace was sold for $580 million to News Corp, a price much lower than the actual value of the site today, according to a report that appeared on BusinessWeek Online Oct. 6, 2006.
Facebook hasn’t sold yet, and with no comment on the company’s future intentions, people can only guess what will happen next. But how would people react if the company did decide to sell?
There are mixed feelings among students around campus. Although some students don’t believe selling Facebook to a large corporation would affect them, others worry that it will.
“I don’t think that if Facebook sold it would change anything that would make me like or dislike it anymore,” said Patricia Johnson, a sophomore communication major.
But one student would be worried about a small-to-large transition if the company were sold.
“You never know what changes large corporations can make when they take over a smaller company. I would feel uneasy knowing a large corporation has access to a lot of my personal information,” said Jon Borgese, a senior marketing major.
But, according to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said that he hopes to run the company for a long time.
