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Did FB pay $19B for Whatsapp in order to prevent Google from acquiring their userbase? That is, FB got into a bidding war with Google over Whatsapp?

• nyrina 13y ago
  It could certainly be a large factor in the massive price. $19B is a whole lot of money, even (especially?) for a company the size of WhatsApp
  • eitland 13y ago
    Interestingly the size of WhatsApp (the team and the required hardware) compared to its userbase might actually be one of the reasons why the price went so high. In other words, - they had a very good engineer to end user ratio.
    • matthewmacleod 13y ago
      I don't think so. They'd obviously built a stable platform, but it's not anything that Facebook couldn't have recreated with far less investment.
      • jbrooksuk 13y ago
        Then they probably spent so much to acquire the user base.
    • alandarev 13y ago
      Oh please, the companies are being bought out not because of some engineering masterpiece, but for already checked and working idea + loyal userbase.
      • lallysingh 13y ago
        I think the parent meant that in terms of a technical cost to user count ratio.