101–110 of 394 posts
According to Crunchbase and Techcrunch, they raised $40M just a month ago at a $500M valuation. Something doesn't add up here. A billion dollar deal like this had to take more than a couple of weeks to close... http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/08/no-filter-required-instagra...
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They have a userbase which is 100% mobile, something that facebook doesn't have. A talent acquisition for $1B? This can's be a serious question.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/02/google-tried-to-buy-path-fo...
Totally possible for Google to sink tens of billions into mobile and still wind up on the bottom of the value chain, commoditized along one axis by Facebook and utterly outmarketed by Apple (with its extraordinary profit margins and increasing domination of supply chains) on another.
Or maybe GOOG/Twitter is in the air, and Facebook is reacting defensively?
How many photo-related startups has Facebook acquired now? And what do they gain from Instagram? A user base? Most of them are probably already on Facebook? Technology for handling photos? Doesn't Facebook already do this as well as anyone else? Design and UI talent for mobile apps? Don't they already have Mike Matas?
They can kill off a photo service that rivals their own. (I can't judge which one's better, because I use neither.) Edit: I know Zuck says they will continue to build Instragram. I'm skeptical.
Not only would he be going against his word - while the internal metrics of the company are going strong - but he would be killing an asset and destroying shareholder value.
Even Zuck isn't crazy enough to pay $1B for a growing company and just kill it. That would be totally irrational.
I suspect this may very well be the best tech acquisition since Google bought YouTube.
Good luck for both of them - even though I am wary of FB's growing clout and I don't use Instagram, it's nice to see a good service find a good home that can support it over the long term.
I am SOOOO happy that Google bought YouTube. Can you imagine a world without YouTube?
I sure can't. Not a good world anyway.
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They probably did to protect themselves... instagram was growing like crazy, last thing FB needs is another giant network to share people with.
That would mean the likes of pinterest would be next.
This is very reminiscent of Google/YouTube circa 2006. When Google bought YT it was a small team of people and a pretty nascent product that people really loved, and the usage numbers were out of control. They left the product mostly untouched and let it grow on its own. Though there was major criticism at the time, it is one of the best tech acquisitions of the past decade.
YouTube is a content paradise though. There's tons of value there and you can sell ads against it or even charge for premium services. Where's the money in Instagram? The content is practically worthless and their only real value is in their userbase. Even though I use the Instagram client, most of the time I see photos, they come through Twitter. So that also reinforces for me that any value is in the users and not…
Does anyone else think this valuation is insane? It's like $300/registered user. The company doesn't have a business model. No way the handful of employees are worth $1B. My mind is blown.
This is very reminiscent of Google/YouTube circa 2006. When Google bought YT it was a small team of people and a pretty nascent product that people really loved, and the usage numbers were out of control. They left the product mostly untouched and let it grow on its own. Though there was major criticism at the time, it is one of the best tech acquisitions of the past decade.
It was also only really possible given the resources Google had to throw at YT. It was years before YT was profitable, and even then it was only with the introduction of intrusive ads that that was possible. A company without Google's deep pockets would likely have had a hard time giving YT the chance to grow organically, without trying to butt in and make it profitable.
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When I read the headline I thought two things: a) Wow, the Instagram guys deserve it, congrats to them. b) I need to delete my account. The second point is because I have been actively trying to avoid giving fb more data than absolutely necessary. No ill will towards Instagram.
Same reaction here. Pretty sad to delete it, actually. The other day I was using Instagram as an example of a social app with a friend list that WASN'T Facebook. sigh Edit: spelling.