Facebook acquires Instagram • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook acquires Instagram

#111

Post by nilsbunger » Mon, Apr 09, 2012, 5:37 PM UTC

jonursenbach wrote: post #39

Toddward wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite a jump from the $500 million valuation they were shooting for last week[1]. [1] http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/08/no-filter-required-instagra...

Wonder if there was a bidding war between FB and Google that caused it to double off of that.

I don't know, but I wouldn't jump to that conclusion. The Instagram team was still growing its user base by leaps and bounds. I would guess they're in no hurry to sell. FB's "competition" for the deal could've just been Instagram's continued organic growth.

Re: Facebook acquires Instagram

#112

Post by xutopia » Mon, Apr 09, 2012, 5:39 PM UTC

homosaur wrote: post #86

inmygarage wrote: post #62

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…

Social sites like Facebook are mostly about photo sharing. This acquisition is all about controlling the main reason people use a social site like FB (or one that competes for it).

Re: Facebook acquires Instagram

#113

Post by guan » Mon, Apr 09, 2012, 5:40 PM UTC

cperciva wrote: post #54

cmer wrote: post #17

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...

"poised to pick up another round of funding" doesn't mean that the funding round has actually closed. Sounds to me like they were keeping their options open, using the threat of raising another VC round to get Facebook to hurry up with an offer.

According to TechCrunch, the round did close and the money was wired to Instagram last Thursday.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/09/right-before-acquisition-in...

Re: Facebook acquires Instagram

#114

Post by damoncali » Mon, Apr 09, 2012, 5:41 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #80

damoncali wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps they found Instagram threatening. I'm betting they kill it now that they own it.

So you're betting that they just straight-up lied in their press release.

Correct - I don't believe them. I think they will merge the products to some degree and then let what's left of Instagram rot.

Re: Facebook acquires Instagram

#115

Post by yarapavan » Mon, Apr 09, 2012, 5:41 PM UTC

$1 billion for a 13-person team? Is this the highest per-employee price tag?

Re: Facebook acquires Instagram

#116

Post by nextparadigms » Mon, Apr 09, 2012, 5:41 PM UTC

inmygarage wrote: post #62

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.

Google also missed buying Flickr back then. I think Instagram would've been a smart buy for them, too, at least from a social network point of view. I don't want Facebook to gobble up all rising social networks. Maybe Google was looking to buy Pinterest instead?

Re: Facebook acquires Instagram

#117

Post by loceng » Mon, Apr 09, 2012, 5:42 PM UTC

It's for the users, to prevent a competitor from 'owning' them - Facebook could block the API, otherwise all of their competitors can still gain access to them. If Facebook does start to screw around with the API then they're destroying value to the consumer.

It's really too bad Instagram sold so soon. I hope they took mostly money.

Re: Facebook acquires Instagram

#118

Post by nirvana » Mon, Apr 09, 2012, 5:43 PM UTC

marcamillion wrote: post #96

Toddward wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite a jump from the $500 million valuation they were shooting for last week[1]. [1] http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/08/no-filter-required-instagra...

I think the mere fact that they just raised $50M @ $500M valuation is the reason that this price is so high. Those investors in that round had to at least double their money...if the price was indeed $1B, that's all they did. Just 2X. Although, the argument can be made that a 2X return in 1 - 2 months isn't bad...but then again, VC funds don't have a 2 month life, so over the long-term value (i.e. 10 years most-times…

The acquisition was in stock and cash. So the VCs that put up the $50M may have just gotten $100M in pre-IPO Facebook stock, which may well dramatically increase their return post IPO.

Re: Facebook acquires Instagram

#119

Post by cpach » Mon, Apr 09, 2012, 5:43 PM UTC

gcl2 wrote: post #31

op_amp wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"we're committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people"

Haven't you heard, that's the cool thing for startup founders to say while trying their best to get acquired behind closed doors. It used to be a better world when they just tried their best to get acquired without making public claims to the contrary.

But that's the words of Zuckerberg, not the Instagram founders.

Re: Facebook acquires Instagram

#120

Post by RexRollman » Mon, Apr 09, 2012, 5:44 PM UTC

I wonder if Facebook will force their sense of decorum onto Instagram. For example, there are people using Instagram to create interesting nude photography, which is something that is not allowed on Facebook (unless I am mistaken).

In any case, I bet you can expect them to force everyone to use Facebook for logging in. Yahoo eventually forced us Flickr users to get Yahoo accounts in order to log in.