Bill Gates Buys Facebook

Microsoft will buy a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook and agreed to sell ads for Facebook overseas, according to Bloomberg.com.

“The company will pay $240 million for the stake, valuing Palo Alto, California-based Facebook at $15 billion, said Adam Sohn, a director in Microsoft’s online services group.

Microsoft, the biggest software maker, is seeking to tap the surge of visitors and advertisers on social-networking sites. Microsoft already has an agreement to sell Facebook banner ads in the U.S. through 2011. By winning the exclusive international deal with Facebook, the owner of the second-most-popular social site, Microsoft also benefits from growing demand abroad.“

Something tells me Google is not happy.

TechCrunch is live blogging the press conference.