Ballmer: Microsoft offered to buy Facebook for $24 billion in 2010

There is a famous saying that goes "sometimes the best deals are the ones you never make." But that certainly doesn't apply to Microsoft's attempt to purchase Facebook back in 2010. The software giant's CEO at the time was Steve Ballmer, who is now known as the owner of the L.A. Clippers NBA franchise.

Ballmer was being interviewed on CNBC yesterday, and was reminiscing about Microsoft's $24 billion offer for Facebook six years ago. Facebook had not yet had its $100 billion IPO at the time, but was "growing like mad," according to Ballmer. He added that the offer from Microsoft was serious. The former top executive at Microsoft said that he respected Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's decision to turn it down.

Microsoft already owned 1.6% of Facebook when it tried to buy the entire company. According to data from Yahoo, Facebook currently has a market capitalization (share value multiplied by shares outstanding) of $379 billion, or nearly 16 times the value of Microsoft's bid. Zuckerberg is now listed as the fourth richest person in the world with a net worth valued at $56 billion.

source: CNBC via MSPoweruser