Facebook owner turns down $1B

[Dr.G]

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/...508776,00.html
Most be nice to be a kid in a position to turn down a cool bill...

[Kyle]

I am glad, if he sold it, it would be full of advertisements and be really shitty if he sold it. It would probably become myspace.

[Bishop]

wow.


but in other news, myspace is going to overtake yahoo as the worlds biggest website . That sucks

[ahmonrah]

well, if he can do better, more power to him. but turning down a billion? unless i knew it wasnt gonna go any further than the company has, i would've sold.

[umairejaz]

wow, thats crazy.

[Jecht]

I would have taken that offer in a heartbeat. Everyone knows how long Xanga was in the spot light - only a few years. I don't think Facebook would last until 2015 like they stated, it will probably fade away in 2008 or so. A billion is way more than enough to live like a king.

[LiL PaKi]

he might is expecting more.. the more he pushes it off the more they will offer.

[Kelly]

Yeah- 1B .... Oh the fun that could be had.

You'd be set for life, you know it?

Day-um!

[4dmin]

what a fucking moron!

[SloWRX]

wtf is wrong with him, greedy ass bastard probably thinks hes gonna get more i would have taken that offer in a heartbeat and be set for life

[tony]

Some people enjoy having a business and care not to sell out.. its the same reason why companies like Linksys or Publix will not go public. Facebook probably grosses in a certain amount of time (say 2 years) more than a billion dollars so why sell if you can still own the company and make the amount you were offered then what is the point? The kid probably doesn't even do a great deal of work on a day to day basis.. there are too many unknown variables to call the kid stupid or even greedy.

[morelian09]

well put, me being a business owner myself i understand why he didn't sell, sometimes its just wise not to sell. im sure he will make more in the long run then just one b, he see's the business for what it is a long term investment that will produce more as it matures, "THER'S NO POINT IN SELLING A GOLD MINE AT THE FIRST SITE OF GOLD"

[PRiMAdonna]

facebook sucks now anyway...
now anyone can join, so its kinda-of pointless...the whole concept is supposed to be school-centered, but not anymore. who needs another myspace?

[HalfBaked]

If ya'll read it, you'd see he'd only get about 500 million if he sold it for 1.6bil. Now they also said that yahoo thought facebook would net 1bill a year just in revenue. Hello...why sell it if you're gonna make that in a year...

The kid isn't dumb...

[2.0civic]

If ya'll read it, you'd see he'd only get about 500 million if he sold it for 1.6bil. Now they also said that yahoo thought facebook would net 1bill a year just in revenue. Hello...why sell it if you're gonna make that in a year...

The kid isn't dumb...

WELL PUT...FUCKING TAXES...

[HalfBaked]

WELL PUT...FUCKING TAXES...

It wasn't taxes as much as he is only 30% shareholder of the company it said.

[morelian09]

so taxes would take half of whats left he's a smart kid and made the right choice

[devinwebb907]

im glad he didnt sell because like you said it would get ruined and turn into advertisements. but for a billion dollars, he is a fucking idiot to not sell. $1B would put him doing mighty fine financially and he could quit working for the rest of his life and be perfectly fine.

[devinwebb907]

It wasn't taxes as much as he is only 30% shareholder of the company it said.

going back to my statement....30% of a billion = 300mil. even after taxes that makes him MIGHTY wealthy. if i all of a sudden had ~200million my life would be forever changed. for the better.

[fawk_you]

dumbass.

[2.0civic]

BUT 200 MILLION IS A HUGE DROP FROM A BILLION...THESE SAME PEOPLE SAYING THAT WOULD SAY "HELL YEAH, ID TAKE 200 MILL" THEN ITS REALLY LIKE 85 THEN LIKE 50 AFTER TAXES...

LOOK AT IT LIKE THIS..IF YOU CAN MAKE 150 MILL A YEAR, WHY SELL FOR 200 MILLION?

[ahmonrah]

but yeah, if the kids generating the offered price or more in a 2 year period, why sell?? that would be like quiting a 500k per year job because someone offered you a million to do so.....

[2.0civic]

but yeah, if the kids generating the offered price or more in a 2 year period, why sell?? that would be like quiting a 500k per year job because someone offered you a million to do so.....

THAT WAS MORE OR LESS MY POINT

[ahmonrah]

point taken.

[Jkuao]

Some people enjoy having a business and care not to sell out.. its the same reason why companies like Linksys or Publix will not go public. Facebook probably grosses in a certain amount of time (say 2 years) more than a billion dollars so why sell if you can still own the company and make the amount you were offered then what is the point? The kid probably doesn't even do a great deal of work on a day to day basis.. there are too many unknown variables to call the kid stupid or even greedy.

Linksys sold out to Cisco for 500 million a few years back. The owners stayed on to run the company.

The guy's holding out for more money. He's getting greedy after seeing youtube go for 1.6. Unfortunately there's an upper limit to the number of HS/College kids out there and they already spend a lot more time on MySpace.

Facebook isn't a billion dollar company. Not even close. Most estimates put them at 50 million in revenue right now and that's sure to fall as Myspace continues to break away. Google probably spends more than that on swag for its employees. The guy's rolling the dice that Google or Yahoo will up the ante just to stay on top. Problem is there are cheaper alternatives.

[tony]

The logic in this thread is amazing.. that is all I will say.

[2.0civic]

The logic in this thread is amazing.. that is all I will say.

EXPLAIN?? YOU ALWAYS SEEM TO HAVE GOOD BUSINESS LOGIC

[con]

:shrugs:

[Julio]

Well we dont know what hes really holding up for. Maybe hes making more or see's himself making more.. who knows.

IA is for sale.. ONE BILLION !!!! I would sale w/ right away.. to bad IA is not worth even .00000001 % of that lol

[umairejaz]

Yahoo isn't going to just write this guy a check and let him go home free with 1.6 billion or whatever percentage he will get. More then likely the payoff will be through stock bonds and shares with major restrictions on how much and how quickly he can get ride of them all. Its not a free ride home for him just yet. He'll be lucky to pocket a few million in cash for his own dream toys.

This guy isn't fucking stupid, I am sure he knows what he's doing.

[HeLLo iM iZzY]

Damn thats a lot of $$$.

[tony]

Well we dont know what hes really holding up for. Maybe hes making more or see's himself making more.. who knows.

IA is for sale.. ONE BILLION !!!! I would sale w/ right away.. to bad IA is not worth even .00000001 % of that lol

How much do you think someone would buy IA for? I'd say it would be high 4 figures at the very least. (Doesn't sound like much I know) Someone would buy IA (I know I would if I would consider it if I was in the auto industry) for the same reason that yahoo is willing to pay so much for facebook.. the traffic.

Facebook may not make billions but the traffic alone has HUGE potential for a company like yahoo or google, through advertisements and integrating your other services into facebook the website would become nothing less than a cash cow.

Want an example? If I could get 3000 visitors a day and convert 2% of those visits into sales I'd potentially GROSS $60,000 in a month.. that is only 2% of 3,000 visitors and Facebook has 1.5 million visitors. While my site may be eCommerce and Facebook is not, Yahoo can direct traffic from Facebook to its eCommerce sites or however they choose and convert that traffic into money.. which is why people do not want to see Facebook go.. it will be so much more commercial than what it was originally intended to be.