Microsoft is reported to be interested in acquiring a stake in social networking website Facebook.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Bill Gates-owned company sees the acquisition as a way of getting into the online advertising market, thus far dominated by Google.

Reports suggest that the deal – for five per cent of the site – could be worth anything between £150 million to £250 million.

This pricing would value the Facebook website as a whole at around £5 billion.

Market analyst Jim Yin told news agency Bloomberg that Facebook is currently one of the "hottest properties" on the internet.

He added that the move would allow them back into the internet advertising race, which they have so far been losing to the likes of Google and Yahoo!.

"They’re behind and I think they’re slowly making more aggressive steps to build some relationships," he said.

Later this week, Google representatives will appear before the US Senate as the monopoly implications of its proposed acquisition of DoubleClick are discussed.