[higherpurpose]

Google wouldn't have paid $20 billion for Whatsapp, and the only reason Facebook did is because their stock is very overvalued, and Zuckerberg knows that, so he's taking advantage of it while he can. Google's stock isn't that overvalued, if at all so they can't buy apps with $20 billion of what is basically "play money".

[declan]

I think this is correct. The WSJ today had a piece offering much the same analysis: that because Facebook's stock is (arguably) overvalued relative to revenue and expected growth, investors are encouraging the company to do these sorts of deals.

It's a perfectly logical outcome if you have high stock valuation and not as much cash on hand.

[Taurenking]

This 100 times