Is Facebook Worth $10 Billion?

For anyone who has ever been “super poked” or had a sheep thrown at them, or wished they didn’t write on their ex-boyfriend’s wall while in the midst of a Chablis induced bad night, odds are you never wondered what Facebook is really worth.

I mean everything has a value, but sheep-throwing super pokers might not ascribe a value of $10 billion to the platform that allows them to stay in touch with their online friends.

Now if you’re Microsoft or Google, you pay more attention to thee financial matters, and virtual hugs and drinks and yes – flying poultry – might actually add up to a two-digit number followed by nine zeros.

Rich Tehrani sent me a link to the latest Wall Street Journal article discussing the potential of Microsoft buying a stake in Facebook.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Microsoft is possibly mulling an investment (reportedly up to 5%) in Facebook. What’s 5% worth? According to the article, it might be worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $300–$500 million.

Just to make things interesting Google too has reportedly expressed an interest in the social networking site.

Alas, it’s too soon to tell which potential suitor’s wall Mark Zuckerberg will post a message on.

To quote the Journal article:

The people familiar with the matter said that the discussions are still preliminary and Facebook could wind up not taking an investment from either Microsoft or Google.

Last year I wrote about Yahoo’s interest in purchasing Facebook for a cool billion.

If only the real estate market appreciated as much as the potential valuation of Facebook did this year.

Watch this space…