Microsoft has paid $240m (£117m) for a 1.6% stake in Facebook that values the site at $15bn (£7.3bn). Facebook spurned an offer from Google which was also keen to invest the site.
A few years ago I wrote to Microsoft’s leadership and asked them why they weren’t involved in the new Web 2.0 space. I got an answer back that was about 2,000 words long and included the words “business value” 13 times.
Millions in the UK are already registered with Facebook, or similar social networking tools such as MySpace, Bebo and Friendster, to conduct part of their private lives online, and it's growing at a huge rate.