The Wall Street Journal says today that Facebook is in serious negotiations to sell to Yahoo! for somewhere around $1 billion.  The paper reports (subscription) that the start-up has been in talks with Microsoft and Viacom but talks with Yahoo! are the most substantial.

I think that Yahoo! would be a wonderful new owner and would build it out right.  After all, who can create communities of scale better than Yahoo?

If this happens, the three co-founders could do well -- we figure that they will get a payout of something in the nine-figure range.  Not bad for two college-drop outs and a 2006 graduate.  I interviewed co-founder Chris Hughes in July in Palo Alto, and I reposted the interview in consideration in today's interest in Facebook.  He gives a good overview of the company and its meteoric rise.  Chris just graduated from Harvard in May!

Congrats on the great scoop to WSJ reporters Becky Buckman, Kevin Delaney and Robert Guth! 

-- Andy Plesser

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