A report suggests Microsoft has offloaded around 20 percent of its shares in Facebook shortly after it went public. In doing so, the software giant received $249 million back -- close to $10 million more than it first invested.

The Redmond, WA.-based company invested $240 million in Facebook in 2007 for a 1.6 percent stake in the social network. Back then it wasn't a huge amount, but was a major boost for Facebook to have a then-dominant player on its roster. Soon after, Bing Search and Bing Maps were brought to the social network to display search results and other imagery for pages and businesses.

An Associated Press report said Microsoft sold 6.6 million shares -- roughly 20 percent -- when the social network went public. Despite Nasdaq's embarrassing and ill-timed hiccup , Microsoft sold its shares at the IPO price, a world away from Facebook's current trading price.

Add up the numbers: number of shares multiplied by the share price: more than $249 million in total. Maybe Microsoft foresaw the steep decline in Facebook shares and sold early, or maybe it's just good business sense. Either way, Microsoft still has an 80 percent stake of its shares in the company.

Facebook is trading at $19 a share, down from $38 at its initial public offering in May. The social network has lost half its share value in one three-month quarter.

Questions were left with Microsoft but did not respond at the time of writing.

Correction at 11:20 ET: Facebook hit the market in May, not June, as was previously stated.