Saudi King to buy Facebook for $150 billion to end the revolt-

[JonAsad]

In what is being termed as pure Wall street Gordon Gecko tactics, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has decided to make an offer of $150 billion to buy out Facebook. Inside sources within the kingdom suggest that he is very upset with Mark Zukerberg for allowing the revolt to get out of control. In a personal meeting between Mark Zuckerberg and King Abdullah on Jan 25, 2011, Zuckerberg had promised that he would not allow any revolt pages to be formed on Facebook even while he allowed Egypt and Libya revolt pages to be formed. But little did King Abdullah know Zuckerberg. Had he seen the movie “Social Network”, he would have been better advised than to trust Zuckerberg.

Left with no option, Abdullah advised by Goldman Sachs has decided to buy out Facebook and “clean out the weeds”. The offer on the table is $150 billion. Facebook balance sheet was shown to King Abdullah and his kingdom advisors had mentioned that it is not even worth $1 billion given that it generates no profit. But the King threw the report into the dustbin and fired his advisors and decided to hand over the investment banking mandate to Goldman Sachs who put the value at $150 billion. The deal will be all cash. It is worthwhile to remind our readers that Goldman Sachs had invested into Facebook at an unimaginable $50 billion valuation.

Social networking site Facebook has raised USD 500 million from Goldman Sachs and Russian Internet investment group Digital Sky Technologies in a deal valuing the company at USD 50 billion, says a media report.

“Facebook, the popular social networking site, has raised USD 500 million from Goldman Sachs and a Russian investor in a deal that values the company at USD 50 billion,” the New York Times reported citing a source.

The deal makes Facebook now worth more than companies like eBay, Yahoo and Time Warner.

Under the terms of the deal, Goldman has invested USD 450 million, and Digital Sky Technologies, which has already sunk about half a billion dollars into Facebook, invested USD 50 million, the report noted.

According Goldman report, the many advantages of buying out Facebook far outweighs the cost of the transaction. Goldman Sachs made a presentation to King Abdullah of how the facebook could be used to cement his position for ever. Never again will his kingdom see another revolt. The presentation also involved some Facebook pages of bikini clad models profile among other profiles. Sources reveal that King Abdullah had made up his mind immediately and spoke to Lloyd Blankfein to complete the transaction as soon as possible.

We are yet to hear back from Mark Zuckerberg on the offer though. But most analysts believe that Zuckerberg will not take the offer and will wait for King Abdullah to up the offer to at least $500billion. In the meanwhile king Abdullah has now logged on the Facebook and was buzy profiling some of the models in the Goldman Sachs presentation.


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[ali_raza]

is ko goli marrooo salla budha musalmanoo ki izat ki dhajiyan ura dee ga...go pakistan attack saudia arabia to save harram,,,,,

 

[Ahmad]

it is the interent mr king, facebook is only one small part, people will use other sites to mobilize themselves.

 

[Dalai Lama]

Facebook won't sell, especially to Saudi Arabia. In this case, I don't think "money talks".

 

[Capt.Popeye]

Hehehehe, the Saudi Bosses are trying to build up their images, actually buy it all up.
Good and funny at the same time.

 

[Agnostic_Indian]

lol..will he buy out all social networking forums ? he can't buy the people who post there.

 

[justanobserver]

Not true

Did Saudi Arabia offer Mark Zuckerberg $150-billion to buy Facebook?

Jameson Berkow February 28, 2011 – 11:47 am

In short, of course not.

Nonetheless, several major media outlets reported as genuine news on Sunday that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia really did offer to purchase the world’s largest social network outright for nearly triple its current valuation. The stated motivation being to stem the rising tide of pro-democracy demonstrations in the region.

Again, this is absolutely not true. But to understand why some believe it really happened, perhaps it is best to start at the beginning.

It all started on Sunday morning, when Dawn Wires published an entry to its ‘Sunday Humour’ series entitled ‘Saudi King to buy Facebook for $150-billion to end the revolt: Goldman Sachs to advise.’ Written with a straight newsy tone, the story recounts an entirely plausible chain of events whereby King Abdullah met with Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg last month to express his displeasure with Facebook for having allowed protests across the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region to organize through the website.

The story goes on to mention that New York-based investment bank Goldman Sachs, which really did make a US$1.5-billion investment in Facebook last month on behalf of both itself and its non-U.S. clients, made a presentation to the Saudi monarch in which it claimed owning Facebook would put an end to revolts and protests in the region so as to “cement his position for ever.”

Even making reference to analysts expectations on whether Zuckerberg will accept the deal, the story concludes that it will likely only go through once King Abdullah increases his offer to “at least $500-billion.”

That should have been an obvious sign of blatant satire, considering such a valuation would make Facebook worth 250% more than Google Inc. Indeed, it would make Facebook the most valuable company on Earth.

Also despite the disclaimer at the bottom of the story noting that “Sunday Humor articles at Dawnwires.com are meant to humor our readers. They may or may not be the truth” several leading MENA news outlets picked up the story as a legitimate report. Some of those outlets include several mainstream media outlets in Egypt as well as the Tehran Times in Iran, which continues to reference the story on its website as a legitimate source.

Wael Ghonim, the Google Inc. marketing executive who was held in Egypt against his will and without charge for 10 days after helping to organize pro-democracy protests in that country (on Facebook), tweeted the most important lesson to be learned from all this.

jberkow@nationalpost.com

 

[JanjaWeed]

lol.. nice one!! cheered me up!

 

[JonAsad]

is ko goli marrooo salla budha musalmanoo ki izat ki dhajiyan ura dee ga...go pakistan attack saudia arabia to save harram,,,,,

it is the interent mr king, facebook is only one small part, people will use other sites to mobilize themselves.

Facebook won't sell, especially to Saudi Arabia. In this case, I don't think "money talks".

Guys please read the article before commenting- why so serious -

 

[Time Assassin]

We ain't talking money here, We are talking $150 BILLION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The whole of Somalia only earns $1Billion a year. Some people are way too rich. The richest man in this World has $50 Billion so gow has this King got Much More?

 

[forcetrip]

It is a humor piece .. lets discuss how funny it is and try not to go the other direction.

 

[Capt.Popeye]

Someone let the cat out of the bag too early.

 

[Time Assassin]

Oh Kr*p it was a joke lol, it had me fooled still i would like to know does the Suadi King really have a spare $150 Billion?

 

[JonAsad]

Oh Kr*p it was a joke lol, it had me fooled still i would like to know does the Suadi King really have a spare $150 Billion?

He is the King- he dont pay taxes- he takes em-
He should buy defence.pk next -

 

[Haseebullah]

That's a lot of solid cash.
But a little too improbable,eh?