Every valuation metric requires context. Like sparky said, you can't compare two different types of businesses the same way. In retail, you want razor thin ma

Every valuation metric requires context. Like sparky said, you can't compare two different types of businesses the same way. In retail, you want razor thin margins. In software you want very high margins. In capital intensive businesses like factories, you want lots of debt. In software businesses you want no debt. Building tools in-house, like cassandra, would be considered a distraction at most public companies. Expensive efforts that are not within the business's core competency are signs that the organization may be making bad investment decisions or they are bloated and trying to keep employees busy. In fb's case, their core competency is information, so building better information management tools is part of their core competency and they have the talent on staff to do it. If GM or Walmart spent employee brain power on something like cassandra, they'd be blasted by the shareholders for re-inventing a wheel that is already good enough.