[christoph]

I don't think people should be too harsh on Palmer. He's still very young. To me it feels like Facebook bought this insanely cheap. It's $17bn cheaper than Whatsapp.

I'm sure there was some smooth talking involved in the deal. I couldn't help but think of the billion dollars scene from The Social Network[1] when I heard about the deal.

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e0n7vTLz1U

[sillysaurus3]

Palmer could have made far more money by waiting. Maybe he was tired of Oculus.

[lazyjones]

Serious question - why would he need any more money? And how certain would that have been?

I can't imagine anyone who hasn't been deep into "FU money" for a while actually choosing "perhaps far more than 2 billion later" over "2 billion now".