The increasingly popular social networking site operator Facebook has sold a 1.6 percent stake to Microsoft for $240 million.
In so doing, Facebook spurned a competing offer from search leader Google.
The deal, which values Facebook at $15 billion, comes less than four years after Mark Zuckerberg started the site in his Harvard dorm room. The Web site is particularly popular among young people.
Microsoft also will sell Internet ads for Facebook as the site expands outside the U.S., broadening an existing marketing relationship that began last year.
The 23-year-old Zuckerberg has indicated he would like to hold off on an initial public offering for at least two more years. Facebook hopes to become an advertising magnet by substantially increasing its current audience of nearly 50 million active users.