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Whatsapp was something like 50 employees and a 400m users when FB bought them in 2014. Plenty of people (though not not all) were baffled by the 19B price that
by em500 6y ago
Whatsapp was something like 50 employees and a 400m users when FB bought them in 2014. Plenty of people (though not not all) were baffled by the 19B price that they paid at the time (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7266618 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7266618 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7275470 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7275470, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7272641 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7272641), especially in the US where Whatsapp was/is relatively unpopular.
- donor20 6y agoThat's a great set of links. The hotmail comparison is apt - Microsoft basically trashed / dropped hotmail? So these acquisitions can go either way? The risk with what's up is definitely higher. That said, Facebook has an INCREDIBLE acquisition success rate with insta and whatsup.
- Lammy 6y agoFacebook didn't make the WhatsApp acquisition blind. They had data from their Onavo VPN service showing exactly how popular it was compared to their own Messenger.