[spacehacker]

I think most of it is about the brand; about buying a name which is already imprinted in millions of minds. The technology alone is probably only worth 1-5% (?) of the price.

[christophilus]

Agreed. Maybe the 2. ??? was "How the heck did they go from unknown to a recognizable brand?"

[weavie]

I think it is more something like :

1. Write really popular blog.

2. Create Stack overflow and make it the goto for developers.

3. Create todo list

etc..

The brand was there before they even started the todo list. All it took was a blog post "We are going to create a todo list now" and it was pretty much set.

[criddell]

By really nailing step 1.