When Mark Zuckerberg almost said yes to selling Facebook
Since its inception to mid-2006, it was thought that Zuckerberg simply said no to every offer presented to him.
- Zuckerberg has previously developed a number of social-networking websites for others, including Coursematch
- In mid-2006, the platform saw a lull period, where the number of users almost stopped growing
Facebook has had countless offers, Friendster was interested in a purchase, Google offered to buy or partner in the summer of 2004, Viacom offered $75 million in March 200
New Delhi: Mark Zuckerberg, founded Facebook in 2004 while studying psychology at Harvard University. A keen computer programmer, Zuckerberg had already developed a number of social-networking websites for fellow students, including Coursematch, which allowed users to view people taking their degree, and Facemash, where you could rate people’s attractiveness.
Steven Levy’s recent book, ‘Facebook – The Inside Story’, focuses on what seems to be more on unraveling the curious events and actions that powered the inception and rapid evolution of Facebook.
One of these many events includes that when Zuckerberg, who is riding success due to the social media platform, had almost agreed to sell it.
In mid-2006, the platform saw a lull period, where the number of users almost stopped growing. College students were already on board but Facebook wasn’t able to woo users from high schools and workplace networks were a total failure.
Since its inception to mid-2006, it was thought that Zuckerberg simply said no to every offer presented to him. Facebook has had countless offers, Friendster was interested in a purchase, Google offered to buy or partner in the summer of 2004, Viacom offered $75 million in March 2005, Myspace wanted to buy in spring 2005, News Corp (Myspace’s parent company) wanted to in January 2006, Viacom came back in 2005, NBC was also interested soon after, Viacom again made an offer of $1.5 billion in 2006.
Facebook-Yahoo! deal
The deal that had put Zuckerberg on whether he should sell Facebook was made by Yahoo! In July of 2006, Yahoo decided to offer Facebook $1 billion. Many of Facebook’s investors and many of its executives wanted to sell.
Yahoo!’s president, Dan Rosensweig met Facebook’s board to strike a deal, Zuckerberg knew he’d have regrets if he did sell it. But he wasn’t sure how to deal with the enormity of the offer. There was enormous pressure.
This was just before Facebook was about to launch the News Feed, and if it went well, Mark Zuckerberg figured the company would be worth way more than $1 billion.
At some point in that meeting, when everyone wanted Zuckerberg to say something. He finally blurted out that he didn’t want to sell, but wondered if he should.
Today, the company is a social media giant, which lives on to tell a tale.