[s_dev]

Nah -- this sounds like Google buying YouTube or Android for billions while they were in their infancy but had proven tech.

People did say at the time Google overpaid but they were some of the wisest investments Google ever made.

I hope Microsoft don't buy them and OpenAI just becomes another FANG.

[bhouston]

Or like when Microsoft invested $240M into Facebook back in 2007, which is one of the all time greatest corporate investments. Even after the massive correction, they still have a 22x return on the investment.

https://www.vox.com/2017/10/23/16412108/facebook-microsoft-2...

I wonder if they have cashed out their investment?

[hangonhn]

EMC acquired VMware at $500 million and VMW later IPOed at $20 billion. So 40x in only a few years.

[highwaylights]

It's like YouTube and Android I would think, but similarly, they didn't have a road forward independently.

YouTube was burning a fortune on hosting costs and being sued out of existence when Google bought them. Android didn't have a monetisation path at the time, because the Play Store did not yet exist.

I suspect the same is true of OpenAI currently. They've got some great technology, but are spending a lot of money servicing free queries right now, and don't really have a route to selling their product to the world and building revenue yet.

[mannerheim]

I remember hearing that said about Facebook buying Instagram, too. In hindsight, one of the best decisions they made.

[alphabetting]

Google bought Deepmind for 2% of openai's current valuation before openai existed.

[moneywoes]

The google acquisition is a great comparison. Years from now it will look like a steal

[impulser_]

No it's not. YouTube had a working product with a working business model.

OpenAI has neither.

[rambambram]

FANGO, then?

[belval]

Replace the F from Facebook with the M from Meta and now we can have "MANGO" which is an acronym that would absolutely catch.

[BlueTemplar]

The problem is the N.

Netflix does matter to you if you are working anywhere near software in the Silicon Valley, but is just not in the same tier as the rest of them. The opposite for the missing Microsoft.

That's why the rest of the world uses GAFAM and not FAANG.

[rambambram]

Made me chuckle, thanks.

[ReptileMan]

It's a racial slur where I live.

[bavell]

It's a fruit where I live.

[optimalsolver]

For what group?

[ReptileMan]

Gypsy/roma

[optimalsolver]

Interesting. What’s the connection?