I read it as "Facebook value drops to $11.25", which let us be honest, is probably closer to the actual value of the company.

Is this really any great surprise? Apart from obvious advertising revenue, are these sites ever worth anything at all? Did we learn nothing from the "dot-com boom/bust"?

How can anyone believe Facebook's business is worth that much? I guess it means that Microsoft really don't have any idea of the value of money, since they have so much of it.

looks like Artie Ziff from the Simpsons.

...this is surely proof that the board have not acted in your best interests. Compensatory dividend time!

"But one thing's for sure: a 1.6 per stake isn't worth $240m"

If $240m means nothing to MS then why the hell not? Money is not the absolute value people seem to think. Especially not when talking about the stock market where most of the money seems to be pulled out of thin air in the trading of shares (else 'valuie' couldn't be knocked of the stock market).

£100,000 is a huge amount to me. I wonder how many times big firms have signed that much off with never a thought?

Facebook is worth whatever is left of the Microsoft 240m Keep-Google-Out bribe, plus the pocket change it gets from advertising.

So, err, just the pocket change then,..

Facebook and eBay are the same - a website running on a huge server platform. Except eBay makes money and Facebook doesn't. eBay should buy Facebook, integrate Skype and PayPal and be done.

And what do you do with it?

Does the EU know? Does God-fearing Christian America know?

Maybe it explains the happy grin on Bill's icon.

that flogging adverts to folk doesn't always work. The interweb marketing bubble burst in 2000, which is now 8 years ago. Marketing whizz kids are seldom right in an economic downturn.

Havard types require a dating service?

Like many other tech and web startups this experiment in social networking is overpriced. Mark should have sold the company to google a long time ago as they are so keen on buying such startups for an over inflated price.

Bring back the days of IRC and other chat mediums! They were certainly much better than the dismal flashy "we'll sell all your information for a dollar and while we are at it we'll sell our own mothers" social networking websites.

...is its yawning maw of application invites ready to chomp down on me when I log in. When I started using it, it was relatively fast. Now it crawls along at an ultra slow pace.

Considering I'm on an ISPs backbone I doubt very much its the speed of my connection!

Mines the one with RIP Facebook? On the back.

Why does every single commentator (not to mention journalist - shape up El Reg) miss out the one key point about the M$ - Facebook deal - that it was an advertising deal?

Since the value of the advertising component is never disclosed - they actually paid somewhere between $0 and $239,999,999 for 1.6% of Facebook, meaning there is no certainty whatsoever in the $15b valuation based on that number alone.

Most likely Microsoft a) values Facebook somewhere around $1b and b) sees any price as a shrewd way to keep Google's nasty mitts off it.

Stop banging the $15b valuation drum - it just isn't true!

/bfg

I'd probably only offer £50,000 for 25% of the company. After all, what's to stop the makes of Scrabble from creating their own social networking site?

And, while we're on the subject, am I the only one who thinks the Ting Tings are fucking awful?

...kick it over to me and place your hands on your head. No sudden movements."

I would, but...

* One of the proprietary scripting languages I use at work has variables with a trailing dollar (I have no idea why) so M$ crops up as a variable name surprisingly often (although this may be partly inspired by "M$ non-cleverness").

* I'm not wearing protective footwear, so if I go around dropping things, corporate Health and Safety would probably drag me off for compulsory re-education.

* I think it's funny because Microsoft is often abbreviated to MS, and they have lots of dollars, so it's a clever play on words and symbols!

Microsoft's Bill, because that could potentially be abbreviated to... you know what? Never mind.

Mark Zuckerberg looks just like Artie Ziff from the Simpsons - It's amazing!!