[bartozone]

Not just Instagram, but Occulus Rift, and WhatsApp. They aren't afraid to spend for leaders in an area they aren't as strong in. They are a very exciting company that could see massive growth over the next 5 - 10 years as they become more than just the newsfeed people know them for.

[paulpauper]

yeah the Instagram buyout was a genius move...in retrospect the $1 billion was a bargain. Whatsapp keeps growing, although $18 billion still seems like a lot, but I think they will find a way to monetize it better. Facebook can't do wrong it seems. Like Google in 2005..and they keep doing better than ever too.

[adventured]

Interestingly, $700m of that purchase was in stock, with that stock now being worth about $3.2 billion after tomorrow's (assumed) price jump. That's going off of Dealbook's Facebook valuation tracker back in early 2012. Who knows of course how much of that stock was held on to up to this point, I suspect some made out extraordinarily well by keeping it.

[scient]

vive is blowing them out of the water currently with VR though, and Palmer is not improving the situation at all with his antics.