The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Tuesday, September 25, 2007 - 7

University
won't disclose
contingencies

Fmr. 'U' President Bollinger
sparks debate with invitation

BUDGET From page 1
passed a budget that included
$320 million in funds for the Uni-
versity - the same amount the
University budgeted for the 2007-
2008 fiscal year.
That budget includes repay-
ment of the money the state with-
held in August.
But Democrats said the plan,
which includes $950 million in
state budget cuts, is too dras-
tic.
Legislators are trying to agree
on a combination of cuts and tax
increases to cover .a projected
$1.75 billion budget deficit.
A panel of six legislators from
both the state Senate and the
state House of Representatives
will begin meeting as early as
today to negotiate a compro-
mise.
Hanlon refused to detail the
University's contingency plans

for astate governmentshutdown,
but he said they do exist.
Wilbanks said she doesn't
expect the University will need
to make any changes to the $1.5
billion budget the University
Board of Regents approved in
July.
Granholm spokeswoman
Megan Brown said a government
shutdown is a possibility.
"It is only prudent for the state
government to know what its
options-are," she said.
But she said Granholm antici-
pates a compromise this week.
Wilbanks said she will be in
Lansing this week to help negoti-
ate a plan with legislators.
Sen. Liz Brater (D-Ann Arbor)
said it's urgent that state legisla-
tors solve the budget difficulties
this week, but there is no clear
compromise.
"That is what is so disturbing
about this," she said.

Microsoft,
 Google in talks
with Facebook

Investment battle
could give site a
value of more than
$10 billion
By BRAD STONE
and ANDREW ROSS SORKIN
The New York Times
SAN FRANCISCO - Some
people laughed at Mark E. Zuck-
erberg when he reportedly
turned down a $900 million offer
last year for Facebook, the social
networking Web site he founded
three and a half years ago.
But Microsoft, Google and sev-
eral funds are considering invest-
ments in the fast-growing site,
according to people with knowl-
edge of the talks, that could give
the start-up a value of more than
$10 billion.
While discussions were still in
the early stage, these people said
that Microsoft was considering
an investment of $300 million to
$500 million for a 5 percent stake
of the company. Google is also
said to be interested in an invest-
ment.
Facebook's valuation could go
even higher as the two rivals cre-
ate the kind of competitive bid-
ding situation that has recently
driven the acquisition prices of
other start-ups into the strato-
sphere.
Representatives from Face-
book, Microsoft and Google
all declined to comment on the
talks.
The investment discussions
by Facebook are part of its effort
to raise an additional round of
capital to further the company's
growth and build on its current
momentum. The company has
solicited interest not only from
Internet companies but also
from a handful of financial play-
ers including venture capitalists,
hedge funds and private equity
firms, according to people with
knowledge of its plans.
Facebook is seeking a mini-
mum valuation of $10 billion but
interestedbiddershaveexpressed
a willingness to value it as high
as $13 billion, on the assumption
that, in the future, Facebook will
become a powerful player in the
online world.
These numbers might have
little basis in actual revenue
or profit. Facebook is a private
company and does not reveal its
income. But earlier this year, a
Pali Research analyst, Richard
Greenfield, estimated that the
company brought in $60 million
to $96 million in annual revenue,
with no real profit. Much of that
revenue comes from a year-old
advertising relationship with
Microsoft, which places display
advertisements on the site.
Greenfield said the investment
price that Microsoft was consid-
ering might have more to do with

keepingthe prize outofthe hands
of its powerful rivals. "There may
be competitive reasons to be con-
nected to this asset beyond what
the specificevaluation is today," he
said. "You may be paying a premi-
um to keep others out."
The lack of a track record for
Facebook might actually be driv-
ing the price up. "Trying to delin-
eate a value today of what was a
new industry five years ago is
challenging right now," Green-
field said.
Last September, Yahoo was in
acquisition talks with Facebook.
It reportedly offered $900 mil-
lion to buy the site outright and
was rebuffed by Zuckerberg, the
23-year-old chief executive, who
has said that he was determined
to keep the company independent
and take it public through an ini-
tial public offering.
Google and Microsoft are
jockeying for a stake in a social
networking site that is said to be
creating a new way for Internet
users to meet people and interact
with friends on the Web.
In May, Facebook redefined
itself as a platform, allowing
other companies to create fea-
tures like games, photo-sharing
tools and music players that run
in Facebook.
That strategy, just four
months old, has unleashed a
flood of interest in the company,
with thousands of independent
software developers creating a
range of programs for the ser-
vice.
"We have this situation where
every developer worth his salt
here in Silicon Valley seems to be
working on a Facebook applica-
tion," said Charlene Li, an analyst
at Forrester Research.
Facebook is full of activities,
from the goofy, like "biting"
friends with a virtual vampire,
to the more utilitarian, like see-
ing what parties and events Face-
book friends are attending. There
are more than 4,000 third-party
applications on Facebook, the
company said.
The strategy has drawn plenty
of attention and new users to the
site. Facebook has more than 40
million members, up from 9 mil-
lion last year.
There may be personal rea-
sons that Facebook would align
itself with Microsoft, according
to a person with knowledge of
the companies' executives. Zuck-
erberg has a personal friendship
with Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief
software architect and one of the
people stepping in for Bill Gates,
the co-founder who is giving up
his day-to-day responsibilities at
the company.
Also, Jim Breyer, a managing
partner at the venture capital
firm of Accel Partners and one
of three Facebook board mem-
bers, was an investor in Groove
Networks, Ozzie's company,
which Microsoft purchased in
2005.

COLUMBIA From page1
free expression policy.
"It is a fundamental value of
our University that all members of
the community and their invited
guests have a right to express their
views and opinions, regardless of
whether others may disagree with
those expressions," the statement
reads.
Leaders of some University
of Michigan pro-Israel groups
slammed Columbia and its presi-
dent, former University of Michi-
gan President Lee Bollinger.
"Our campus should never
extend an invitation to a man
actively engaged in murdering our
soldiers and terrorizingnot only his
own Iranian people but the world,"
said Ari Siegel, the president of
Israel IDEA.
Ben Hamburger, the chair of the
student governing board of Univer-
sity of Michigan Hillel, an umbrella
organization for campus Jewish
groups, said in a written statement
that Ahmadinejad's denial of the
Holocaust and failure to address
human rights abuses in Iran are
"reprehensible."
"While a university must strive
to ensure that even reprehensible
views can be expressed, it isn't obli-
gated to invite and provide a plat-
form for someone, however famous
or infamous, to voice them," Ham-
burger said.
Public Policy Prof. Paul Courant,
head of the University's librar-
ies and a former provost, said the
Ahmadinejad controversy wasn't
just a Jewish issue, but part of'a
larger debate about the boundaries
of academic discussion.
RALLY
From page 1
said. "That's fine." 1
Zatkoff and his fellow Colleger
Republicans - working with the r
Mackinac Center 'for Public Poli-d
cy, a conservative Michiganthink
tank - plan to distribute flyerse
containing information provideds
by the Mackinac Center arguing I
that the University should cut t
its spending to prevent a tuition I
hike.
"There's little to no evidencec
saying that higher appropria-
tions from the state translate 
into lower tuition," Zatkoff said. (
"They just lead to bigger budgets, t
higher salaries and gold-plated p
amenities."b
The College of Engineering
refused to send an e-mail to itse
students publicizing the rally. t
An e-mail message sent by Yost i
to the College of Engineering 1
student e-mail list last week wasd
rejected by the list's moderators.c
The message - whose sub-
ject line read "Prevent a $1000s
Mid-Year Tuition Hike!!!" - was F
different from another e-mailr
message with a more subduedc
subject line that Yost sent to allr
CYCLISTr
From page 1t
and even did his laundry. t

He also encountered quite a"
bit of the unexpected. In eastern I
Kentucky, Shi said he was ridingr
down a road when he felt a sharpr
pain in the back of his head near
his ear.C
"I actually lost my hearing forN
a little bit," he said. "I walkeda
up to this guy who was outsidea
his house and asked him to take t
a look at it. He said someone had t
shot me with a BB gun."
The man contacted a Catholic 1
nun named Sister Marge, whoc

"The things he says about Israel
and the Holocaust are ridiculous,"
Courant said. "But this isn't prin-
cipally an issue about Judaism or
Israel. He's a world leader and he
has a lot of power - whatmakes
him tick?"
Ahmadinejad spoke at Columbia
yesterday afternoon as a guest of
the ongoing World Leaders Forum
sponsored by the school's School of
International and Public Affairs.
Bollinger condemned Ahmadinejad
in his introduction.
"Mr. President, you exhibit all
the signs of a petty and cruel dicta-
tor," he said.
Then Ahmadinejad addressed
the crowd and took questions.
His answers elicited reactions
University students on the same
day.
In an e-mail message to Yost,
Justin Laby, a moderator of the
ist, said that because Yost's
message was "of an advocative,
political nature," it could not be
distributed.
"There's certainly a political
element to tomorrows rally," Yost
said. "But it's nonpartisan. It has
bipartisan support. We're essen-
tially going in order to get the
University a $30 million check."
Some College of Engineering
fficials disagreed.
Paul Killey, executive director
of information technology for the
College of Engineering said that
the college deemed the message
partisan, and therefore could not,
by law, distribute it.
"Rarely are messages reject-
ed, it's just a judgment call, and
this one was deemed advocative
instead of informative," said Kil-
ley. "The announcements you see
distributed represert both sides
of an issue."
Still, organizers expect 1,000
students from Michigan's 15
public universities to attend the
rally tomorrow, with University
of Michigan students comprising
nearly a quarter of them.
rushed him to the emergency
room, where a doctor extracted
the BB from his head.
"The doctor even let me keep
the BB and the X-ray," Shi said.
"And Sister Marge insisted on
paying the bill for the emergency
room. She whipped out a check
right there."
When he arrived in Yorktown
on July 25, a local cycling club
was there to greetchim along with
a nationarep for The Arc. He got
a free flight to Washington D.C.
to meet his state's senators, and
then went back home to Oregon.
Shi chronicled the trip on his
blog at http://www.wearestu-
dents.net/xiaoyu/.

FILE PHOTIO
Former University of Michigan President Lee Bollinger, pictured here in Ann Arbor in 2001. drew fire for following through with a
decision to allow Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia University yesterday.

ranging from anger to laughter.
When asked about Iran's alleged
execution of gays, Ahmadinejad
responded: "In Iran, we don't have
homosexuals like you have in your.
country ... I don't know who told
you we have this."
He called Iranian women "the
freest in the world," bemoaned
what he called Israeli oppression of
Palestinians and invited everyone
not at Columbia to "come and visit
Iran for themselves."
The World Leaders Forum web-
site streamed live video of the ses-
sion, as did news outlets like CNN
and the New York Post. Columbia's
student newspaper, The Columbia
Spectator, temporarily replaced its
regular website with the Ahma-

dineblog, devoted to the day's
events.
Not everyone thought Ahma-
dinejad was the only party that
behaved badly at Columbia Univer-
sity.
"It was sad when I read that (Bol-
linger) harshly criticized (Ahma-
dinejad)," said Nick Morteza, an
engineering doctoral student and
board member of the University of
Michigan's Iranian Graduate Stu-
dents Association. Morteza says he
does not oppose or support Ahma-
dinejad, but he thinks a university
should provide an open forum for
debate.
"We should allow everyone to
express their ideas," he said.

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