Microsoft touted to buy Facebook

THE VOLE'S consumer web activities could do with a boost so how about this rumour du jour - a $6 billion acquisition of Facebook.

Plenty of sites are reporting that Steve Ballmer has the social networking site on a coffee-table computer projection and is willing to pay, oh, squillions, for a piece of the action.

Uncle Vista could use a bit of profile. The last time Microsoft impressed with its web strategy was when it was buying Hotmail and spinning out Expedia. That was a long time ago, way back in the days before global warming, Posh and Becks, Paris Hilton, the BlackBerry and, well, social networks.

OK, so the link points to a Henry Blodget site but every 'buy' rating isn't duff. Microsoft generally doesn't like being treated like the large child with limited social skills in any sector so don't go betting the mortgage against a blockbuster deal that smashes through the scale of previous Vole M&A activity. µ