[pavlov]

A very HN comment... At the time, almost nobody felt spending billions acquiring these companies was "elementary". Instagram was bought so early that spending a billion on a startup was unheard of. And WhatsApp was so expensive that they questioned Zuck's sanity.

You mention two strategic enablers that made these unusual acquisitions seem obvious to FB leadership. So were those two not good calls?

[tchalla]

The parent comment is referring to a “VPN” installed by Facebook on users phone that surreptitiously sent telemetry data to Facebook. No one else had that information.

[alex1138]

And also even if they never had Onavo you have Zuck furiously backpedaling in an email about I'm not saaaaaaaying we should acquire IG to wipe them out from the landscape of competition, but........

And then you have the WA founder (Acton) famously saying delete facebook

Some acquisitions make the product better or are altruistic. Zuck's war chest isn't one of them