• Business Week, Wednesday, March 29, 2006 10:15 AM

Facebook, arguably the Web's second most popular social networking site after MySpace.com, is putting itself up for sale, according to Business Week. The owners of the student-aimed site hope to sell for as much as $2 billion, having recently turned down a $750 million offer. That's about three times as much as News Corp. bought MySpace for in July of last year. Facebook is the seventh most heavily trafficked site on the Web, according to comScore Media Metrix, garnering 5.5 billion page views in February, more than Amazon, Ask.com or The Walt Disney Company, but far fewer than MySpace, which recorded 23.5 billion page views. Analysts say Viacom, owner of MTV, Comedy Central, and VHI, is the front-runner on a short list of potential suitors, as the media giant has repeatedly stated its intention to move into social networking, most likely through an acquisition. Facebook doesn't have the scale of MySpace because the social site is for high school and college students only, which makes it particularly attractive to marketers.  It would be easy to argue that Facebook is overvalued at $2 billion, particularly because we're in the height of the social networking frenzy and MySpace, the biggest fish in the pond, is already taken. It certainly doesn't command that price based on ad revenue.

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