Hey Ballmer. We'll Sell You a 1.6% Stake in Orkut for $240 Mil and a High-Def Copy of the Monkey Boy Video

As Microsoft announced that it would invest $240 million for a 1.6% stake in Facebook, valuing Mark Zuckerberg’s little Harvard project at $15 billion, Google CEO Eric Schmidt and company co-founder Sergey Brin were onstage at Google’s analyst day in Mountain View, Calif..

Coincidence? Not likely. How satisfying it must have been for Redmond to block Google’s entrée to Facebook at such a time. Didn’t seem to faze Google much though–as unaccustomed to playing the role of a runner-up as it might be. Perhaps that’s because Microsoft’s deal doesn’t appear to include search-based advertising, which could present Google with a significant opportunity in the future.

Perhaps it’s because Google feels Microsoft overpaid. Said Schmidt, “Some competitors are clearly willing to spend larger amounts of money beyond their ability to monetize.”

Or perhaps it’s because of Facebook’s “faddish nature,” which Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was pointing out just a few weeks back. After all, Zuckerburbia ain’t the only social-networking game in town. “There are plenty of companies using the notion of social community,” said Schmidt. “It is pretty obvious people will be members of multiple networks; which is why our world won’t collapse with any one network.”