Facebook.com’s mastermind, Mark Zuckerberg smiles at his office in Palo Alto, California in this Feb. 5, 2007 file photo. Rapidly rising Internet star Facebook Inc. has sold a 1.6 percent stake to Microsoft Corp. for $240 million, spurning a competing offer from online search leader Google Inc. The deal announced on Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2007 after several weeks of negotiation values Palo Alto-based Facebook at $15 billion _ less than four years after Zuckerberg started the online social networking site in his Harvard University dorm room.