Andy Boyer

Well I don't have anything to say about the Facebook / MSFT deal that is any smarter or insightful than anything else already published.  But here's my personal view on how this affects people like us.

The life of the average blogger or other purveyor of Social Media just got better.  Google's Ad Sense, the gold standard of Internet advertising, had started to get a little stale.  That happens to everyone making truckloads of cash - the need to radically innovate lessens.

But now, MSFT is locked into Facebook forever, and as Facebook impressions rise, MSFT ad impressions rise, and Google has to do more to please the millions of publishers out there.  Competiton is good, and in one investment, MSFT was able to do join up with an established web property haven't been able to do with any of their homegrown properties - deliver a universally admired user experience, with virtually unlimited growth potential.

And wow, a valuation of $15 billion..... That's simply amazing.