WSJ reports that Facebook is in talks with Yahoo! for a $1 billion acquisition deal. They've also spoken to Microsoft and Viacom in the past (as previous rumors have withholded), but Yahoo! is the one that they might be seriously getting somewhere with. This will be a good acquisition for Yahoo! – something they need after their recent 15% share drop and more obvious evidence that their own social network didn't do too well.
Social networks are huge in the market now. MySpace is the only current success story, but let's not forget Bebo turning down $550 million in the past and YouTube's current $1.5 billion price. Also, as I mentioned above, Facebook's own I-want-2-billion-not-750-million when they were talking with Viacom comes to mind.
What I find interesting is that this is double of what MySpace sold for an year ago - and if that acquisition hadn't taken taken place, social networks wouldn't have been a big thing or at least not as big - and you're right in guessing that this wouldn't have happened either. So in a way, MySpace sold short, started the whole social networking craze, and others – like Facebook and YouTube – are taking advantage of it.
[tags]Acquisitions, Yahoo, Facebook[/tags]
