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Interesting. There are of course several people who doubt the actual recusal of the board from the deal, but when you look at this from a pure Facebook perspect
by kposehn 15y ago
Interesting. There are of course several people who doubt the actual recusal of the board from the deal, but when you look at this from a pure Facebook perspective, and not a board member perspective, it does make immense sense to purchase Instagram.
Instagram is pretty much the perfect way to take pictures and share them, so FB picking them up for $1b is actually akin to Google's purchase of YouTube. The notion that Zuckerberg did not consult the board is very logical as well - he knows the scrutiny they are all under, and such a critical deal getting substantively tainted by conflicts of interest would cause many issues in the long run.
The drum beat of "Instagram scam" posts and commentary about the conflicts of interest would be far worse if the deal were known well ahead of time. Zuckerberg is no fool and I'd expect him to be truthful in saying that the board had no knowledge - it is to their direct advantage to do so.
- Estragon 15y agoBut for $1B, couldn't facebook just reimplement Instagram's interface and forcefeed it to facebook users? It's not like it needs the Instagram network, right?
- redthrowaway 15y agoReimplementing it would take time, and as with any large software project, there's no guarantee of success. How much do you think Google spent on G+, between wages, acquihires, and the like? Would it not have made more sense had they just bought facebook? G+ is still a nascent, fragile, pseudo-success. Facebook was proven and growing when Google made their offer. Facebook could have remade Instagram, but there's no guarantee users would like it. Instead, now they have Instagram, its users, its growth, and its cachet; they've solved the photosharing hole in their app in one fell swoop. Sometimes it's better to pay more for a sure thing. Plus, they got 12 new employees, so it's really only about $83MM each...
- kposehn 15y agoAgreed; FB could try to re-implement, but there is no guarantee they'd come even close to what Instagram had accomplished. In cases like this, it makes more sense to purchase someone with momentum rather than try and build it yourself.
- zwischenzug 15y agoI'm pretty sure Google would have bought Facebook if they could have. Facebook was not for sale.
- dethstarr 15y agoRe-implementation means that they would be second or third to market. You have to be first in a new category, and Instagram defined the mobile/social sharing space.
- Estragon 15y agoYou only have to be first to get the network, and they already have the network.
- dataminer 15y agoEbay tried building a Paypal killer and was not successful even though they owned the network. They ended up buying Paypal and killing their own offering because no one was using it. It has been said many times now that buying Paypal was one of the best decision by Ebay management.