When Facebook announced plans to acquire Instagram yesterday, tongues were wagging at the reported sales price of $1 billion. Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger had seemingly achieved the Silicon Valley dream – for a free app!
But this week's deal is not the first time a major company has snapped up a smaller firm or app for big bucks. As Twitter's Matt Graves tweeted last night, "Instagram jealousy is the new YouTube jealousy." Back in 2006, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen were the talk of the startup world when Google shelled out $1.65 billion for their video site, YouTube, the search giant's largest acquisition at the time. There were skeptics who questioned whether a two-year-old company could truly be worth almost $2 billion, but in this case, the gamble has most certainly paid off.
An even pricier acquisition took place a year earlier when eBay bought Skype for $2.6 billion. That didn't really work out for eBay – the two parted ways several years ago – but Skype made off quite well when Microsoft picked it up years later for $8.5 billion.
Few other deals are in the billion-dollar category, but countless startups have walked away with a nice chunk of change. From Amazon's $850 million purchase of Zappos and Electronic Arts' $750 million payout for PopCap, the Silicon Valley dream is alive and well for the tech- and business-savvy.
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