[funkdoctorspock]

So cue Microsoft. I am so happy that I have never used this intrusive networking site.

5% stake Billy wants to buy? May the bastardization of Facebook commence right...

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook. Photograph: AP


It is the scourge of middle managers, who fear their employees spend too much time using it, and beloved by people with a penchant for gaining new friends and indulging in internet Scrabble.

Now Facebook, the phenomenally popular social networking site, is at the centre of financial speculation, which, if it comes to fruition could value a company set up three years ago by a Harvard dropout at a staggering $10bn (£5bn).

According to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft is poised to buy a 5% stake in the firm for between $300m and $500m. That would make Facebook worth up to $10bn in all and turn its founder Mark Zuckerberg, 23, into one of the wealthiest men in California's Silicon Valley.

Facebook began as a site where university students could stay in touch with friends by exchanging photos, messages, electronic "gifts" and tips. But since Mr Zuckerman threw it open to all entrants in September last year it has been gaining 200,000 new members every day. Of its members, five million are from Britain.

Such was its popularity with workers at Medway Hospitals Trust that managers claimed they were slowing down vital hospital IT systems and banned it.

Neither Microsoft nor Facebook would comment on the speculation last night. It is not the first time Facebook has been the target of interest from the technology industry's established players. Yahoo! tried to buy it for $1bn last year and Google has expressed interest in investing.

The valuation would amount to $238 for each of the 42 million people who have Facebook profiles.

Microsoft already has a contract to supply display advertising to Facebook. An investment would be a sign of the Seattle-based software company's keenness to strengthen its position on the internet - an area in which it is still considered to be relatively weak.

Kim Caughey, a senior analyst at Fox Pitt Capital, said: "It would probably be pretty good for Microsoft since it has not had the best success in creating really hip, young-people-grabbing stuff on the web." Facebook reportedly expects to make profits of $30m on revenue of $150m this year.

But its origin is the subject of a legal battle. Three Harvard classmates of Mr Zuckerberg have sued him in a Boston court, claiming that he stole the idea - which he insists he came up with in a college dorm - from them.

Having been educated first at state schools and then the exclusive Phillips Exeter Academy boarding school, Mr Zuckerberg enrolled at Harvard in 2002. He was already keen on computing, having first started when he was 10.

He tried various attempts to create networking software for the college population, eventually producing The Facebook. It was an instant hit, with half of the student body signing up within a fortnight, attracted by the way it allowed them to share information and keep in touch with friends, and the phenomenon soon spread to colleges across the north-eastern United States while its founder moved to California to run the site.

Mr Zuckerberg, who is famed for his casual dress and love of open-toed Adidas sport sandals, is said to have remained down-to-earth despite the success of his creation. Now he looks set to become the latest young internet entrepreneur to be catapulted into the rich lists thanks to a major dotcom deal.

Last October the founders of then 20-month-old video website YouTube accepted a $1.65bn takeover offer from web search firm Google.

The deal turned Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, who set up the site in a California garage, into two of America's wealthiest businessmen at the ages of 29 and 27
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[Ultimate_Red_Devil]

If Facebook, Livejournal, etc were wiped off the face of the planet the only people who would care are:

friendless wonders
emo kids

[GocartMozart]

see i must differ because it's incredibly useful when searching for a college buddies that you've long lost touch with. even in college, when you hung out witha chick and were too drunk to put her digits into your phone properly, it served it's purpose.

[RobsonLegend]

Originally Posted by Ultimate_Red_Devil

If Facebook, Livejournal, etc were wiped off the face of the planet the only people who would care are:

friendless wonders
emo kids

I don't give a crap about Livejournal, and Myspace is past it now, but you're wrong, URD. Could I have done a better job of keeping in touch with friends from high school and college? Yeah, maybe I could/should have done so, but the fact is I didn't. And I've been able to get in touch with a good many of them via networking sites such as FB.

[dimz]

Couldn't have said it better than the above two. I find facebook to be one of the most useful and addictive websites around. It's the easiest way to feel close to your friends that are scattered about the globe. I love it.

[mrsirjojo]

Originally Posted by dimz

Couldn't have said it better than the above two. I find facebook to be one of the most useful and addictive websites around. It's the easiest way to feel close to your friends that are scattered about the globe. I love it.

Or meet girls just around the corner