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Yahoo’s “Project Fraternity” Docs Leaked

techcrunch.com — Yahoo's long running courtship of Facebook has lasted at least as long as this year, and is internally referred to as “Project Fraternity.” Leaked documents in our possession state that an early offer was $37.5 million for 5% of the company (a $750 million valuation) back in Q1 2006. This was rejected by Facebook.

Who dugg this? Made popular Dec 13, 2006

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  • baldr, on 10/12/2007, -3/+30I don't know... Yahoo has done a good job of not defiling flickr.
  • aaronm67, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14If they were going to Yahoo photoize the site, they would have done so already, they've had them a while.

    Also, look at del.icio.us. They have left that pretty much the same too. I don't think yahoo would ruin facebook at all.
  • ClassicJBC, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12I think Facebook already jumped the proverbial shark when they started allowing open registration. I'm not an educational elitest or anything, but when the very definition of your site is essentially "a school yearbook," then it seems logical to leave registration closed to college or even high school students.
  • jayhawk, on 10/12/2007, -5/+15"5% of the company" would hardly have been a company falling to a big corporation.
  • anitab83, on 10/12/2007, -6/+14At least MySpace is owned by a company that doesn't know anything about the internet, and has basically left them alone. Yahoo would completely ruin Facebook ... trying to integrate it into every one of their properties.
  • fxmcleod, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10true jayhawk, but i doubt that's even why they rejected it. I think they're holding out until the bidding war gives them a higher price.
  • aahpandasrun, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Most of my friends have stopped using facebook since they've been mucking around with it and making it less college centered.
  • AlphaMack, on 09/26/2008, -3/+7"At least MySpace is owned by a company that doesn't know anything about the internet."

    Given the security of MySpace I'd say that knowledge has trickled down quite a bit.
  • randyzaia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Zuckerberg should have made his several hundred million while he had the chance.
  • Satertek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It's as college centered as you want it to be. If you don't add any friends outside college networks, there no difference from before you were able to. You can completely customize who sees what in the privacy controls.
  • Seidoger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Or if Facebook will still be around in 9 years
    (Well or as we now know it, probably won't be)
  • strictnein, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Fox Interactive Media doesn't know anything about the Internet? So that's how they spent $650 milllion on a profitable company, and then signed a three year deal with Google that will bring in $900 million based solely on their ownership of that company.

    Now that same $650 million company is worth $4 - $5 billion.

    But you're right, FIM has its head up its ass.
  • welvis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Dot Bomb! Bring on the 2.0 bust!!
  • AlphaMack, on 09/26/2008, -0/+1"Daddy, what was Facebook?"
  • antiheroine, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Open registration actually helps one faction of college-centered users - alumni who no longer had a working educational email address and weren't able to register without it. Alumni are an an important aspect of the "school yearbook" definition, too, and it's nice that now they aren't excluded completely.
  • Jammerdelray, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Yahoo has done a great Job of maintaining Flickr and I'm sure they would do the same if they got Facebook.
  • Satertek, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2It may have started out as a "school yearbook" but its obviously much more now.
  • spudnic, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2"By 2015 Yahoo projects that Facebook would generate nearly $1 billion in annual profit."

    Either someone got their numbers mixed up, or Yahoo are extremely optimistic. $3 000 000 profit a DAY? I really don't see that happening.
  • SaladFork, on 10/12/2007, -13/+8Nice to see FaceBook rejecting the offer. One can only imagine what a tragedy it would be to see _another_ social networking site fall to a big corporation.
  • blakebrannon, on 10/12/2007, -11/+3Thats because Flickr has remained for the most part still Flickr. Just wait till they Yahoo photoize the site.
  • Ninjab3ar, on 10/12/2007, -29/+3pwned
  • MrBabyMan, on 10/12/2007, -31/+3^^^ "thumbs down" bait^^^
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -42/+6Just think, I'm going to get a million thumbs up just because I was first to comment.

    Losers.

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