Posts Tagged ‘Microsoft’

I was listening to NPR the other day after the 15 billion valuation of facebook. The commentator and guest on the show were questioning . First the valuation came from a Microsoft investment of 240 million dollars for 1.6% of the company.

In any case why is the 15 billion dollar valuation important? Well it’s mainly because some people say that facebook is just a fad, which may be true. However I contend that it is a wise investment for Microsoft considering their need to be a bigger player in the online advertising arena.

The power of social networking is just starting to be realized I believe, the idea that we’re all connected by 6 degrees of separation is what drives the model. Recently I was with a good friend of mine who runs a non profit here in Dearborn and we were discussing their annual fundraising Gala which they hold to basically keep them going for the next year. I suggested to him he post an event on Facebook since he already has an account, so he did and within 5 minutes there were 200 people invited to the event. With those kinds of results, and statistics that show the average Facebook user stays online for almost 6 hours a month (that’s 12 1/2 hour Television shows) I think that a $15 billion is actually fair.

Many who know me know that as a person who uses MySQL so extensivly, I have not always been a big fan of the database system. Until version 4.1 and really version 5.0, MySQL Lacked a lot of the features needed to create a truly robust data management solution. Lately however, MySQL has made a believer out of me. They have been moving in the right direction with the many new features they’ve come up with, and with partnerships such as the VSIP program. Hopefully this will mean more integration between MySQL and Visual Studio .Net!

MySQL AB :: MySQL Joins Microsoft Visual Studio Industry Partner Program