Yesterday it was reported that Microsoft Corp. is currently in discussions with Facebook Inc. to invest in the social network. The investment could be upwards of $10 billion.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google Inc. has also been approaching Facebook regarding a potential investment. Should Facebook agree to an investment, the privately held company may give Microsoft up to a 5% stake in the social network. That stake would be worth between $300 million and $500 million.

There is no certainty yet as to whether Facebook will accept any company’s offers. All talks are in the first stages and there are still details to be discussed before serious consideration.

Facebook is estimated to make $30 million in profit this year on revenue of $150 million. The investment into the site could benefit Google or Microsoft alike, giving them greater exposure to the exponentially growing social network audience.

This investment by Microsoft would also boost the company’s ad platform. With Facebook’s targeting information, Microsoft could gain more momentum to catch up to its competitors.

Microsoft could also be expanding an exclusive deal made with Facebook last year which stipulates that Microsoft will serve the display ads for Facebook. As of now this deal will bring in about $75 million for Facebook this year and somewhere around $200 million to $300 million by 2011, depending on traffic to the site. The new discussion is to potentially extend the contract past 2011 and to include other countries than the United States.

Even though many other companies are looking to get a piece of Facebook, Facebook is looking to get a piece of other companies as well. The firm seems to be looking to raise money to expand and invest and acquire.

The social network is also thinking about fund raising from financial investors as well as, or instead of an investment from Google or Microsoft. Accel Partners, Founders Fund, and Greylock Partners are among the venture-capital firms that have given the company $40.7 million.

Microsoft and Yahoo have both attempted to buy the company, however founder Mark Zuckerberg is maintaining his goal to keep the company independent and then take it public.

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NEW YORK - A billion dollars just doesn’t go as far as it used to. For the first time, it takes more than $1 billion to earn a spot on Forbes magazine’s list of the 400 richest Americans. The minimum net worth for inclusion in this year’s rankings released Thursday was $1.3 billion, up $300 million from last year.

The new threshold meant 82 of America’s billionaires didn’t make the cut.

Collectively, the people who made the rankings released Thursday are worth $1.54 trillion, compared with $1.25 trillion last year.

The very top of the list was unchanged: Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates led the list for the 14th straight year, this time with a net worth estimated at $59 billion. He was followed by Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in second place with an estimated $52 billion and casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, No. 3 with an estimated worth of $28 billion.

Larry Ellison of Oracle Corp. maintained his ranking at No. 4, with an estimated net worth of $26 billion.

But the list showed some notable changes.

Joining the top 10 of the country’s richest for the first time were Google Inc. founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who tied for fifth place. The 34-year-old moguls’ wealth has quadrupled since 2004 to an estimated $18.5 billion this year, while their company’s stock value has surged 500 percent.

And, lower down, almost half of the 45 newcomers made their millions in hedge funds and private equity investments. The youngest member of this year’s list was 33-year-old hedge fund manager John Arnold, who joined the ranks at No. 317 and a net worth of $1.5 billion.

“Wall Street really led the charge this year,” said Matthew Miller, editor of the Forbes list. “God only knows if they’ll be on it next year. It really just depends on what the market does.”

Surging oil prices also helped some members of the list. Oil baron brothers Charles and David Koch also broke into the top 10, sharing the No. 9 spot with estimated wealth of $17 billion. Their ascension bumped the Walton family, heirs to the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. fortune, from the top 10 for the first time since 1989.

The discount retailer, struggling with a slowing economy and higher gasoline prices as well as merchandising mishaps, has seen its sales lag behind rivals like Target Corp.

Climbing 19 rungs to No. 7 was casino tycoon Kirk Kerkorian, who doubled his net worth to an estimated $18 billion. The 90-year-old investor is a majority shareholder in MGM Mirage — operator of the MGM Grand, Bellagio and other casinos — which saw record profits at several of its Las Vegas hotel-casinos.

Rounding out the top 10 was Michael Dell of computer maker Dell Inc., who was No. 8 with an estimated $17.2 billion.

The magazine confirmed the worth of an individual’s holdings in public companies by using the Aug. 31 closing stock price, and estimated the value of private companies by evaluating comparable public firms in the industry. The list also takes into account philanthropic donations

Branded mini-applications — call them apps, badges, widgets, gadgets or whatchamacallits — aren’t anything new. They’re all over social networks, portals and even desktops. And they’re still going.

Google today announced Google Gadget Ads, non-traditional ad units with interactive, rich media capabilities.

The Gadget Ads can be Individual advertisers and agencies alike can develop the ads using Flash, HTML or both. They can incorporate real-time data feeds, images and video.

Advertisers will be able to choose between cost-per-click and cost-per-impression pricing models, as well as target their ads based on site context, domain, geography and demographics. And users can share and embed the gadgets on their blogs and portal homepages, though they won’t get any cash for carrying the corporate flag.

Google is willing to distribute the gadgets across its advertising network, which the company claims reaches 75 percent of unique Internet users.

Preliminary Google Gadget Ad beta participants included brand advertisers such as Pepsi-Cola North America’s Sierra Mist, Intel, Honda, Six Flags and Paramount Vantage.

Jupiter Research analyst Emily Riley told InternetNews.com to expect more brand name advertisers in the future. “This isn’t necessarily, but it’s certainly new for Google. They’re hoping to entice more brand advertisers.”.

Nothing new there, of course. According to a recent report from TNS Media Intelligence, Internet display advertising expenditures from January to June this year grew to $5.6 million, up 17.7 percent from the same period a year ago.

Google is after that growth. That’s why it bought ad-serving firm DoubleClick earlier this year and started offering video advertising last summer.

Google Gadget Ads is currently in an expanded beta with a select group of AdWords advertisers worldwide.

Today, Microsoft reportedly lost an antitrust case after the European Union court agreed with a prior ruling that the software giant abused its position in the market to squash any potential rivals.

The court upheld the decision that was made in 2004 against the company and will fine them $689.9 million. A lawyer for the company said that the ruling will affect how they market future products; while Neelie Kroes, the EU Competition Commissioner stated in Reuters that the firm should see a “significant drop” in their current 95% market share.

Kroes said in a news conference that, “The court has confirmed that Microsoft can no longer prevent the market from functioning properly and consumers are entitled to benefit from choice and more innovative product.”

The case focused primarily on the applications that were continually released by Microsoft to only operate with Windows. British competition lawyer Chris Bright also said to Reuters, “It’s clearly a major defeat for Microsoft. There is no doubt it will spur the Commission on to regulate Microsoft much more significantly.”

Microsoft is declared by the ruling to give coding or any other pertinent information to their rivals in order to allow Microsoft product to run with other servers than Windows.

Brad Smith, Microsoft General Counsel told the conference that the firm will fully follow their new sanctions and that the company has not decided whether or not to appeal.

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few months ago Justin Rosenstein, a developer on the GDrive project at Google, accepted a position at Facebook. He is just one of the many Googlers who recently found greener grass at the very popular social network site.

A couple of months ago, after three years as a Google product manager, I decided to leave for Facebook. I am writing this note to spread Good News to all the friends I haven’t already overwhelmed with my enthusiasm: Facebook really is That company.

Which company? That one. That company that shows up once in a very long while — the Google of yesterday, the Microsoft of long ago. That company where large numbers of stunningly-brilliant people congregate and feed off each other’s genius. That company that’s doing with 60 engineers what teams of 600 can’t pull off. That company that’s on the cusp of Changing The World, that’s still small enough where each employee has a huge impact on the organization, where you think about working now and again, and where you know you’ll kick yourself in three years if you don’t jump on the bandwagon now, even after someone had told you that it was rolling toward the promised land. That company where everyone seems to be having the time of their life. — Justin Rosenstein

Justin was the product manager for Google Pages and was also listed as the developer contact for Platypus (GDrive) in the leaked login page for the service. Hints suggest that Gdrive has been ready for launch a couple years already — maybe this is a sign that developers working on that project became frustrated enough to leave the company? This happened most publicly with the Dodgeball founders who saw their application become stagnant in the hands of Google.

Firefox has put out a free addition to their browser that is raising some eyebrows and pulses. Adblock Plus is a new service, that once implemented deletes advertisements from web sites.

While Firefox is not the biggest browser, and many other companies are choosing to ignore the development, this technology could potentially do a lot of damage to an industry that was built on a revenue model dependent on advertising to support the exorbitant costs of some sites according to the New York Times.

When searching the internet using this new program, all ads cease to appear. Developer of the software, Wladimir Palant commented in an email to the Times that although the number of users is still small, “The numbers are rising steadily,” adding that his figures don’t “show exponential growth any more (luckily, the server has limited traffic), but there are still 300,000 to 400,000 new users each month.”

There is much debate on both sides of the coin on this issue. While consumers may opt to not see flashes of light from a direct response ad or rich media ads they continually roll over by accident, by taking away the ads themselves the service is technically committing theft since the space is paid for by advertisers.

Advocacy groups of smaller sites have been forming to speak out against Adblock Plus. Many have been blocking Firefox users to protest.

Microsoft was the only larger company that commented on the development to the Times, stating, “It would not be appropriate for Microsoft to comment on the merits or demerits of a specific add-on, or group of add-ons. Provided they have not been designed with malicious intent and do not compromise a user’s privacy or security, Microsoft is pleased to see new add-ons that add to the range of options that users have for customizing their browsing experience.”

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The word is out. BlueLithium which is the fifth largest online advertising network has officially been acquired by Yahoo for a hefty $300 million.

This acquisition is aimed at assisting Yahoo in attracting direct response marketers. Senior vice president of Yahoo publisher network, Todd Teresi was quoted in Advertising Age to state that the acquisition is part of “our strategy of leading a transformation in how advertisers connect with publishers.”

Acquiring BlueLithium is not the move Yahoo has taken to reinvent itself. The purchase of Right Media earlier this year signaled the first step taken to reorganize the company.

While Yahoo usually appeals to brand marketers that are traditionally focused on engagement and brand lift, conversion is the concentration of the firm right now. This comes at a time when one of the company’s major competitors, Google is focusing on brand advertisers, in an exchange of roles by the firms.

Blue Lithium launched in 2004 and will have access to Yahoo Publisher Network inventory and inventories owned and operated by Yahoo as well as add its inventory to the Right Media Exchange.

Analyst’s reactions have been fairly positive. Many believe that the deal will bring positive growth to the company. Thomas Wiesel analyst Christa Quarles was quoted in Zdnet to say “We believe BlueLithium brings three things to Yahoo!: (1) Scale in its ad network business; (2) strong behavioral targeting technology; and (3) a string international presence. BlueLithium is expected to become a part of the Right Media exchange upon completion of the acquisition (though Yahoo! has already been working with BlueLithium on its own remnant inventory)…We believe BlueLithium may not be the last ad network that Yahoo! Consolidates in its quest for scale. In addition, while BlueLithium relies heavily on cookie data, the combination of search data and cookies could hasten the improvements in monetization on Yahoo! Remnant inventory.”

Imran Khan, analyst for J.P. Morgan stated, “We believe BlueLithium will further improve Yahoo’s monetization of display advertising. We believe advertisers will pay higher CPMs for responsive targeted ads. We think that, in addition to Right Media, Blue Lithium’s adPath technology will help further monetize remnant inventory.”

Yahoo has also seen a shakeup in management. With the exit of Terry Semel and the re-entrance of Yahoo founder Jerry Yang, numerous executives have taken their cue to leave the company while Yang plans and executes an overhaul to the search giant. Susan L. Decker being appointed president was one of Yang’s first changes to bring the right people into the right positions in the company to propel it forward into a new renaissance in the coming years.

Teresi continued to say of the partnership “Our ability to drive accelerated revenue growth will rise from our ability to give salespeople…extensions of audiences and aggregated audiences. That’s the tool for No. 1 market share.”

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