David Rosenthal: evaluation

Transcript context

…Yup. I guess the name of the section is “What Would Have Happened Otherwise?” So we have to sort of explore other options. Could they have been acquired and who would have acquired them at this point? They’re 10 times more valuable than the last time Facebook tried to acquire them. But I mean, for what they dumped on WhatsApp, let’s say it’s the standard public market to 40% premium. I think, what was it, they went out at a $24 billion market cap. So, what, like 33, 34, 35, would Facebook have paid that much for them and will they have accepted it? I don’t know. I mean we ended our last Snapchat episode with… you know, I was arguing that we’re asking the question should Facebook have offered more to try and buy Snapchat back in 2013. And I argued no because just this division in the culture of Snapchat and their vision of their product is just anathema to what Facebook is. And we’ve seen that play out even more so now. I mean, Facebook, they have Instagram, they have Instagram Stories that’s doing great. Instagram is growing faster than ever. Why would they pay $35 billion for Snapchat right now? Yeah.…

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