Microsoft Exec Confirms Facebook Acquisition Attempt

Microsoft apparently tried to acquire Facebook for $15 billion--and Mark Zuckerberg told them no.

"We tried to acquire Facebook," Fritz Lanman, Microsoft's senior director of Corporate Strategy and Acquisitions, told an audience Dec. 9 at the Le Web '10 conference (as reported by TechCrunch). "Facebook had a lot of similarities to Microsoft back in the day."

According to David Kirkpatrick's "The Facebook Effect," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer visited Zuckerberg in Palo Alto, Calif., where he made the $15 billion offer. But Zuckerberg wanted to keep control of his project. And what's that compared to enough money to buy a medium-sized country?

Microsoft did invest in Facebook, however, to the tune of $240 million. That was good for a 1.6 percent stake in the social network, which has collaborated with Redmond on a number of initiatives over the past few months.

In October, Microsoft and Facebook announced a deeper partnership centered on a set of new social-search features accessible via Bing and Facebook's Web results. One feature, Liked Results, displays Websites and links "liked" by a Facebook user's friends. That's paired with Facebook Profile Search, which leverages a user's Facebook connections to deliver more relevant results.

"We think it's time for a real, robust, persistent social signal," Satya Nadella, senior vice president of Microsoft's Online Services Division, wrote in an Oct. 13 posting on the Bing Community blog. "Facebook has led a transformation of the Internet already. It has reached and passed 500 million members, and the amount of content created inside Facebook each day is staggering."

The following day, Microsoft announced updates to its Docs.com online applications platform, which allows Facebook users to create and share Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. The new features included .PDF support, full-text search, user-generated templates, and drag-and-drop Silverlight document uploading.

Such collaborations with Facebook, of course, give Microsoft access to a massive brand and a built-in audience, both of which are vital as it seeks to battle Google Docs and similar cloud-based productivity platforms. For Facebook, collaboration with Microsoft on a project like Docs.com allows the social network to expand its utility to users in new ways.

http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/corporate/facebook_exec_confirms_facebook_acquisition_attempt.html

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg is Donating Everything to Charity

Joining up with Bill Gates, George Lucas, Warren Buffett, and 50 other billionaires, Zuckerberg has agreed to donate the majority of his wealth to charity, as part of the Giving Pledge movement Gates launched back in August.

It's the largest philanthropic work ever done, with over 50 billionaires pledging to give away most of their fortunes to various charities. They're not legally bound to do so, but if they renege then I imagine all hell would break loose. Just imagine having Gates' beady glare on you, wherever you go. *shudder*

15 other billionaires signed up recently, alongside Zuckerberg. AOL's co-founder Steve Case, and investor Carl Icahn are just some of the names you might recognize. The charities on the receiving end of the Giving Pledge's handout haven't been named yet, but considering Gates fascination with green issues, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw some funky eco-friendly initiatives start looking...well, greener. [WSJ]

http://gizmodo.com/5710013/facebooks-mark-zuckerberg-is-donating-everything-to-charity

Here's Facebook's New Profile Page

Mark Zuckerberg will be unveiling a redesigned Facebook profile page on 60 minutes tonight. Here's a screencap from the episode's preview so you can get a head start on complaining about it. Hm, the poke button moved a little!

Update: Hey, look, you can get the new Facebook right now by going here. (Or you can wait for it to be rolled out to you.)

There are a bunch of changes, small and large which you can read about in great detail at TechCrunch.

Here are a few:

• A stream of your recent tagged photos appears at the top of the screen, and there are more pictures of your friends on the page. This is because the main problem with Facebook is that there weren't enough opportunities to see pictures of people.
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• Now there's a field on your page called "philosophy," which folds in your religious, political views and favorite quote. Plus a brand new field: "People Who Inspire You." (If you put Mark Zuckerberg you should be able to get access to a special Super Facebook.)
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• All your vital stats are squished up under your name in a list now. It actually looks pretty good, like you're a character in a Role Playing Game or something!
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• There is also a field for sports, if you can somehow fit physical activity in between checking your Facebook profile
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• Tabs bring up different sections of your profile. Tabs: So hot right now.
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Send an email to Adrian Chen, the author of this post, at adrian@gawker.com.

http://gawker.com/5706610/heres-facebooks-new-profile-page

Facebook Plans to Trademark the Word 'Face'

Hoping to finally launch thefaceslap.com? Sorry, Charlie, you're too late: Facebook may have just won the rights to the word "face."

The social-networking giant was just given a green light in its efforts to trademark the word "face." The company's efforts have moved Facebook's pursuit of face past the opposition period, according to the U.S Patent and Trademark Office, and a "Notice of Allowance" has been issued. And it looks like the application will be approved, Neil Friedman, a partner at law firm Baker and Reynolds who regularly practices trademark law, told FoxNews.com.

"At the end of the day, will they have protection in this space? Yes," Friedman said.

A trademark may help Facebook throw the book at the competition -- and Facebook faces a wealth of it. GoDaddy.com, the world's largest domain name registrar, told FoxNews.com that it has 53,000 domain names containing the word "face" in its databases. The company estimated that the Internet has 89,000 domain names containing the word "face" just in the .com world.

So put on a happy face, Facebook, that trademark may need to be put to use.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/24/facebook-plans-trademark-word-face/