Mousetrap weblog: Does Microsoft really want Facebook?

Microsoft will likely meet with stern resistance from within the Facebook community should its reported approach to the fast-growing social networking site gather momentum.

The Facebook community, populated as it is by a large core of university students, is one of the strongest bastions of anti-Microsoft sentiment on the web, and frequently points out what it sees as the flaws in many of the software giant's products.

Yesterday it was reported that Microsoft's bankers had approached Facebook to ask whether the company might be interested in selling - although the parties are not said to be in official talks. Neither company has commented on the report, which appeared first in The Wall Street Journal.

There are at least three groups of Facebook users set up specifically to vent anger at the site's potential acquisition by Microsoft, with names such as 'If Facebook sells to Microsoft, we're leaving', and 'Don't sell Facebook to Microsoft!'.

On the largest, 'Don't let Facebook buy Microsoft', which was formed around the time Microsoft bought a $240 million stake in the site in October, one member recently commented: "If Microsoft buys Facebook I will deactivate my account and never come back - after clearing my friends, my information. YOU people are my witnesses!'

Microsoft's apparent desire to join forces with Facebook is not the only Microsoft-related topic to attract the venom of the latter's users. Another Facebook group 'Anti-Microsoft', makes more general criticisms of the software company, with topics such as 'What would happen if Microsoft made cars?' (Answer: your car would occasionally just die on the motorway, for no reason.)

There are also no fewer than three groups devoted specifically to criticising the 'talking paper clip', the assistant in the Microsoft Word program which gives tips on formatting - 'F*** YOU paper clip thingy from Microsoft Word!!!', one is called - and one given over to the perceived flaws of Vista, the latest version of the Windows operating system.

Should a Microsoft bid materialise, Facebook will be acutely aware of the way in which cultural differences between internet companies that have merged or intended to merge have plagued such deals. Fundamental incompatabilities between AOL - now the internet arm of Time Warner - and its owner have often been cited as the reason for the merged entity's difficulties.

More recently, many within Yahoo! were said to have threatened to resign should Microsoft have been successful in its $47.5 billion bid for the struggling internet portal, citing what they saw as differences between a decades-old giant of the technology world and a far younger firm founded a couple of years prior to the dot-com boom at the end of the Nineties.

Rebecca Jennings, an analyst with Forrester, said that Microsoft and Facebook had "fundamentally different cultures". Facebook was set up primarily as a services business, whereas Microsoft's origins had been as a software and technology company, she said.

"The other problem is, even if the culture fits, any acquisition can take an incredibly long time to integrate - as long as 18 months, in some cases - and Facebook would have to consider that, especially given how fast the market is moving."

Bloggers suggested that the alleged approach made to Facebook by Microsoft's bankers was more likely a tactic in the latter's protracted bid for Yahoo! rather than any genuine expression of interest to acquire Facebook.

"The Facebook move would likely be seen by many as a better fit than Yahoo!, but expect just as many to see it as a negotating ploy in their bid for Yahoo!" wrote Nathania Johnson, on the site Search Engine Watch.

Larry Dignant, of ZDnet, commented: "If Microsoft ever wanted to pressure Yahoo!, some window shopping would certainly turn the heat up on Jerry Yang [Yahoo!'s chief executive] and his disgruntled investors."

Both Microsoft and Facebook declined to comment.

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