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Awesome story !!!!!
Makes total sense, but I can only imagine how M&A deal teams handled that. |
When you win the lottery, you are just plain lucky. when you develop a widely used program and sell it for $18B, you are a genius! Congrats!
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Also, probably now that you can really afford the F ticket, or most likely have someone else pay for it, it will seem wasteful since you know you can get that ticket with a couple of CC applications and MS!
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Originally Posted by anrkitec
(Post 21443625)
No, in addition to the address book privacy issues some say WhatsApp has been plagued by security issues and exploits which could allow hackers to take over users accounts.
I guess some major changes have been made, given how twitchy Apple is about such things. I believe Apple did pull it once though - at least for a while. Regardless, "free" isn't always a bargain. |
Great story. Thank you for sharing.
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Facebook screwed up big time by paying $19 billion for WhatsApp. I'm sure than jkb76 (Jan) is laughing all the way to the bank!
Viber is a similar messaging VOIP application for smartphones. In addition to text messaging, users can exchange images, video and audio media messages. Viber works on both 3G/4G and Wi-Fi networks. Viber is a free app and is reported to have 280 million users (100 million of which are active monthly users). On February 14, 2014, the startup was acquired by Rakuten for $900 million. Hmm....$900 million for 100 million active users vs. $19 billion for 450 million active users? Which is the better buy? You decide. Google passed on WhatsApp at $1 billion less than a year ago. But the smartest person in the room is jkb76, the creator of the app, who is now a multibillionaire. Rakuten gets credit for buying a similar, if not better, app for 5% of the price Facebook paid. Had Facebook purchased Viber for $900 million, it could have easily quadrupled the number of active users and put an end to the dominance of WhatsApp. But they chose to go with the easier choice and shower the owners with billions in exchange for the continuing expertise. My own preference is to use Viber. I use Viber everyday when I am overseas. I stopped using WhatsApp a week after downloading it. It's no Viber. And yet I own FB stock (in addition to GOOG). It's been a great investment, but any more reckless decisions and I'm going to sell FB and reinvest the proceeds in GOOG. |
congratulations to the OP!
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Just 2 observations :
1) 19 B$/ 450 million user = 42 $ per user 2) I opened a Whats app account just 1 month ago Conclusion : I am very happy to have contributed to a fellow FTer new wealth.. for 42 $ at least :D |
Originally Posted by largeeyes
(Post 22406171)
Just curious what it feels like to see your name in quotes like that...or your company on the headlines of every major news source around the world....
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Originally Posted by jkb76
(Post 22387891)
aww thank you so much everybody for your kind words. it is amazing to see how much people here in USA are genuinely happy about and supportive of success of others around them.
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Outstanding
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Originally Posted by jkb76
(Post 22387891)
aww thank you so much everybody for your kind words. it is amazing to see how much people here in USA are genuinely happy about and supportive of success of others around them...."
...and so one of the biggest deals in tech history had to be scheduled around my M&M award ticket :) |
Originally Posted by ORDNorth
(Post 22414956)
Man this just makes my day. FT has been an obsession for me for years . . . and to think of your story now JKB76, every time I mention FT, my kids will not think I am such a freak anymore! ^^^;););):D:D:D About to send your story posted here to them, to get some parent street credibility back! ;) Oh yeah, super happy for you and your teams success with the app & FB deal.
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This is a nice article.
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I deleted the app as I found it completely useless and virus prone, but congrats on becoming a billionaire
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