Or you dump 1/10th of that money ($100 million) into creating your own app that does the exact same thing and is tied to Facebook.
And you've saved $900 million. Which can be used for other projects or acquisitions.
How many people have tried this strategy and succeeded. "Oh, Nimblesoft has made this awesome app, let's throw in a chunk of money at the problem, put in some really smart guys, and see if we can get something as successful". I don't even need to quote some product examples that were the brainchild of this noble, yet ill-informed idea. Facebook not so much purchased Instagram as they purchased the brand identity and its ecosystem. That imo takes way more to develop than just $100 million. So, saying that they'd have saved $900 million, without looking at the app dev time, manpower, and the risks of it not even being successful in the first place is a bit simplistic.
recount the time Apple redesigned the iPhone's screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company's dormitories, and then each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames.
So, with the glee of a 8 yr old girl who just found a pony under the Christmas tree, this Apple exec gushes about how easy and flexible it was to house workers in sardine cans, rouse them from a probably short nap anyway, command them to the assembly line and order them to stand there doing repetitive, mind numbing tasks for 12 hours. Pay of the day? 31 cents an hour. But yea, competition and capitalism is good you say. If they don't want to do it, then hundreds of other Chinese, Taiwanese, other South Asian immigrants would gladly take their spot, right? Well I dunno about you, but I consider the US extremely luck in that for the most part, you don't have to be forced to sleep in barracks, be called to work at anytime your employer chooses, and be subjected to low-paying highly boring jobs. Then again, it's turning this way for some people. I'd rather save my dignity and live in relative poverty (I've already done so for a big chunk of my life, and it wasn't too intolerable) than succumb to the machinery of this misguided capitalist enterprise.
As you will see, I told them, in no uncertain terms, to see Figure one. -- Dave "First Strike" Pare