Something funny in memoriam of Instagram (2010 – 2012) – $1 billion, $400m, $180m, $100m – The business of funny money

Something funny in memoriam of Instagram and then five serious points about Facebook buying Instagram for $1 billion. [HT Melissa Carlson]

Austin Powers – 100 billion dollars

Five serious points,

1. Lets be clear, Facebook didn’t buy Instagram for $1 billion in stock and shares even thats what the press release said. The software just worth a tiny amount in that $1 billion, Facebook bought the users. You and me. Simple as that.
2. I don’t know what math Mark Zuckerberg and his team used to come up with the $1 billion figure. It will be interesting to see if and when Facebook reveal more details, possibly as amendments to its IPO document? How much was it in Facebook overvalued shares, and how much in cash? (update: Thanks to Mike Preston’s comment in my post, assuming 50m users @ 1b valuation, that is $20/user lifetime. Thats a lot of money and these users have fingers and they are more mobile than big companies want to admit (just ask Myspace). I kinda agree with Mike, FB must want those users NOW!
3. During the last internet bubble, AOL used it overvalued stock to merge with Time Warner. May be it is a good time to revisit this NYT article, “In Retrospect: How the AOL-Time Warner Merger Went So Wrong“. Well, at least with Facebook buying Instagram, it is a very new company buying an even newer company with funny money. And it looks like a good deal for the Instagram team.
4. If you had a team of six people with a neat product and millions of users, I bet you would sell your users out for $1 billion stock and cash too. Wired has an “exclusive” about how much the Instagram key players will get (figures like $400m, $100m, $180m are stated).
5. Finally, my friend Jen puts it well, “I’ll miss you @instagram. I’m happy for your team but sad for our community. #igersunite #sadiger #sadpanda #fbkillscoolapps“

See FB news release.