Microsoft said Wednesday it would pay $240 million for a small slice of Facebook in a deal that values the red-hot social networking website at $15 billion.

In selling a 1.6% stake to the software giant, Facebook rebuffed a competing offer from search-engine giant Google. (GOOG) Google had no comment.

Microsoft (MSFT) also will sell ads on Facebook outside the USA, extending a marketing relationship that began last year. The deal, announced after several weeks of negotiations, is considered a coup for Microsoft as it slugs it out with Google for online ad sales. Facebook, founded in 2004, has more than 47 million users.

The hefty price paid by Microsoft validates the gambit by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to spurn a $1 billion takeover bid from Yahoo last year. In 2005, News Corp., (NWS) parent of Fox News, paid $580 million to acquire Facebook rival MySpace.

Microsoft covets the data Facebook collects about its members’ tastes and preferences. Microsoft wants to sell ads based on those preferences, ads that appear when Facebook members use Windows Live services, Windows Mobile smartphones — even its Xbox Live online-gaming service, says online search expert Kevin Lee, chairman of Did-it.com.

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