One other slightly different view I'll throw out there is that FB having to pay Instagram $1billion, is simply its "cost of doing business". For FB to maintain

One other slightly different view I'll throw out there is that FB having to pay Instagram $1billion, is simply its "cost of doing business". For FB to maintain its leadership position -- especially with an IPO around the corner no less -- it needs to periodically "eat up" any new threats that may come along. This is afterall the tech space where "low-cost barriers to entry" are common, making this industry very different from what you read in business school. So, if I was a (future) shareholder of FB I would simply need to be wary of these periodical "write-offs". Afterall, isn't this really what happened to Yahoo? It had to keep spending money to stay relevant until their common shareholders got disillusioned?