25th October 2007
Microsoft has paid out $240 million (£117 million) for a 1.6 per cent stake in social network site Facebook.
It beat major search engine rival Google in the bid to become Facebook's exclusive advertising platform as it expands outside of the US.
Microsoft has already been in a US-only partnership with Facebook since August 2006.
"Making this investment … is a great win for not only for our two companies, but also our collective users and advertisers," Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft's platforms and services division, said in a statement.
Facebook was launched in 2004 and is now valued at $15 billion with 49 million users. Although NewsCorp's MySpace attracts more users globally, Facebook is reportedly gaining ground in the social network market.
According to media measurement analyst comScore, Google was the most popular search engine during September 2007 conducting 57 per cent of searches. Yahoo! came second with 23.7 per cent and Microsoft third with 10.3 per cent.
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