Is Facebook Microsoft’s Next Takeover Target?

The corpse of the Microsoft-wants-to-buy-Yahoo deal isn’t even cold yet, and the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the software giant has been sniffing around Facebook.

According to the Journal, which cites “a person familiar with the matter,” Microsoft’s bankers recently approached the social networking service to gauge its interest in being acquired. Reports of the contact first appeared on the Journal‘s sister site AllThingsD.com.

Microsoft already owns a small stake in Facebook, whose founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been quite vocal about not wanting to sell it.

Facebook would give Microsoft a strong foothold in the increasingly popular mobile social networking scene; last October it launched a mobile version of its Facebook Platform, which lets its more than 80,000 third-party developers extend their Facebook apps to mobile phones.

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.