MUMBAI: Facebook and Microsoft Corp. announced that Microsoft will take a $240 million equity stake in Facebook’s next round of financing at a $15 billion valuation, and the companies will expand their existing advertising partnership.

Under the expanded strategic alliance, Microsoft will be the exclusive third-party advertising platform partner for Facebook, and will begin to sell advertising for Facebook internationally in addition to the United States.

“We are pleased to take our Microsoft partnership to the next level. We think this expanded relationship will allow Facebook to continue to innovate and grow as a technology leader and major player in social computing, as well as bring relevant advertising to the more than 49 million active users of Facebook,” said Facebook vice president of operations and chief revenue officer Owen Van Natta.

“Making this investment and expanding this partnership will position Microsoft and Facebook to better take advantage of advertising opportunities around the world, and is a great win for not only for our two companies, but also our collective users and advertisers. We have partnered well over the past year and look forward to doing some exciting things together in the future. The opportunity to further collaborate as advertising partners is a big reason we have decided to take an equity stake, and is a strong statement of our confidence in the long-term economics of this partnership,” said Microsoft president of the platforms and services division Kevin Johnson.

Facebook continues to experience strong growth both in the U.S. and international markets; 59 percent of Facebook’s users are outside the US. With an average of 250,000 new users registering each day, Facebook continues to be one of the most-trafficked sites on the Internet.