Social: Facebook's $16 Billion Bill for Whatsapp Made the $3 Billion It Offered Snapchat Look Low-Balled

By -
As you may well know by now, Facebook bought Whatsapp for $16 billion in cash, stock, and retention.  A few months ago, some quarters of the Internet was abuzz with Snapchat's rejection of the $3 billion overture from Facebook.

I'd would have sold.  Take my billion and move onto something else.  Given the Whatsapp deal, Snapchat was right in not dealing.  It could have asked for two to five times more from Facebook.

Still, it's hard to fathom if all of this will pay off or are we in the midst of a social network bubble not unlike when Internet companies in the late 90s and early 2000s were throwing money away left and right.

The question now is what's next for Facebook, what it'll do with Whatsapp (supposedly, nothing will change...right), and how will other social networks or competitors like Google arm themselves.  There are plenty of other messaging "giants" out there that could be for sale given the right price.

Like Snapchat or Line.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I Want to Run OpenClaw But I Am Waiting For Apple To Show Us How Do Run It Safely

By -
Want an AI agent to run as much if your life as you are willing to give it? Apple's been working on it for years with Siri and its version of machine learning and then AI like ChatGPT came onto the scene. It was all large language models for a few years while Apple's effort being largely absent from the scene even as it marketed and misfired with Apple Intelligence. However, as an iPhone, iPad, and Mac user, we all know that there are elements of Apple Intelligence working in ways that are front and center like a chatbot. Now, we have OpenClaw. If you don't know act it is, I think it is what Apple has planned for Siri but has never found a way to make it work. OpenClaw is an AI agent that runs natively on your Mac or PC that capable of executing tasks on your behalf. The issue with OpenClaw is privacy as it requires access to user credentials to complete most of the tasks. And it was susceptible to prompt injections and lack protection against attacks. While this is a perfe...
Read more

Get the MacBook Neo Over the iPad But If You Already Have An iPad, Should You Get the Neo?

By -
Image
I write a lot so it's great that I have the option of doing it on my MacBook Air , iPad , and the iPhone . Well, what if you already have an iPad. Should you get the MacBook Neo ? The iPad is a vastly different tablet after the release of iPadOS 26 with more features like a window system and multitasking features that are traditionally available only on the MacBooks . This was only the reasons why I decided to get a new iPad Air last year. But suppose I do not have a MacBook. Should I get the Neo even though I already have an iPad?
Read more

Google Contact Lenses, Apple’s Vision Pro, And The Future of AR in Glasses

By -
Image
 We can walk and chew gum at the same time. But how about watching a video while doing yard work, during a meeting you don’t want to be at, or, ahem, school? Okay, I don’t recommend doing that but I am sure it has been done before or worse. I am suggesting this because with the recent Vision Pro unveil by Apple, I cannot help but imagine in a few years, perhaps a decade from now, Apple and other tech companies will be able to jam all that technology that currently has to sit on the top of your head into a pair of glasses.  We already have glasses with audio built in from the likes of Oakley and Ankers. There were rumors a few years ago that Google was going to skip the glasses altogether and go directly to incorporating tech into contact lenses. Now if you remember Google Glasses, let us just say that Google was way ahead of its time and it should not have included a camera.  Despite the fact that Google Glasses did not go anywhere, I cannot help but feel that Google has ...
Read more