Microsoft may be ready to exchange up to $500 million for a 5 percent stake in Facebook, while New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo wants the site held accountable for the actions of sexual predators.
Facebook: Microsoft Love, New York Hate
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had a good news, bad news, kind of day. Rumors of a potential investment from Microsoft for a piece of the company would give it a valuation in the $10 billion range.
A Reuters report on the rumored deal suggested that Zuckerberg would want an investment to place Facebook’s valuation in the $15 billion neighborhood.
The two companies have an existing relationship. Microsoft provides advertising on Facebook, a deal that looks like a toe dipped in the water compared to the splash a few hundred million investment dollars will make.
That’s the good news.
The bad news comes from Albany, where Cuomo has reviewed the solicitations profiles set up by his department on Facebook have received. Cuomo’s office created “profiles” of 12 to 14 year old users as part of their investigation.
Their honeypot profiles attracted plenty of unsavory attention. Cuomo is highly displeased not just at this, but at what he perceives as slow responses, or complete inaction, from Facebook in response to complaints about the predatorial come-ons.
“My office is concerned that Facebook’s promise of a safe website is not consistent with its performance in policing its site and responding to complaints,” Cuomo said in a statement.
“Parents have a right to know what their children will encounter on a website that is aggressively marketed as safe.”
Cuomo’s office has dispatched subpoenas to Facebook, so the company can explain its responses, or lack thereof, to the allegations.
