All the Major Companies Worth Less Than WhatsApp Today, Facebook announced the acquisition of WhatsApp, the largest acquisition of any venture backed company in history. Started in 2009, the Company only raised $8 million and today is used by 450 million users globally across their mobile devices per month. Another remarkable stat is that - it only has 50 employees and never embraced the advertising model, only recently starting a $0.99/a year subscription model. Being a Facebook shareholder, only time will tell if this acquisition ends up being a smart move for them. But, heres a list of companies that have been around for a lot longer than WhatsApp and as of today are worth a lot less. Interestingly enough, all of these companies listed below have tangible goods - things you can touch and feel with solid profitability. WhatsApp on the other hand has a massive user base. Only time will tell what is important. Congrats WhatsApp on a great exit. Youve officially made history today and are an inspiration to many entrepreneurs. Activison-Blizzard – $13.9B Alcoa – $12.2B American Airlines – $12.3B Akamai – $10.9B AmerisourceBergen – $15.9 Blackstone Group – $17.8B Campbell Soup – $13.6 Chesapeake Energy – $17.2B Chipotle – $17.1B Citrix Systems – $10.7B Coach – $13.5B Consolidated Edison (ConEd) – $16.2B Discovery Communicatons – $19.1B Dr. Pepper Snapple Group – $10.2B Expedia -$10.2B The Gap – $19B Fidelity – $15.8B Harley-Davidson – $14.1B Hertz – $11.5B Icahn Enterprises -$13.1B The J.M. Smucker Company – $10B Kohl’s – $11.1B Kroger – $19.4 Loews – $17B Macy’s – $19.6B Marriott International – $15.4B Mattel – $12B MGM Resorts – $12.7 Monster Beverage – $12B Moody’s – $17.08B News Corp – $10.27B Nielsen – $17.6B Nordstrom – $11.4B Progressive – $14.3B Ralph Lauren – $14.2B Red Hat – $11.1B Royal Caribbean Cruises – $11.4B Ryanair – $15.5B Sherwin-Williams – $19.4B Southwest Airlines – $14.7B Starwood Hotels & Resorts – $14.9B Symantec – $14.4B TD Ameritrade – $18.4B The Carlyle Group – $11.1B Tiffany & Co. – $11.4B Tyson Foods – $13.1B Under Armour – $11.4B Whole Foods Market – $19.3B Workday – $17B Xerox – $13.2B And to make this story even sweeter. One of the co-founders, who is now a billionaire with the sale of WhatsApp to Facebook, didnt get hired by Twitter or Facebook in 2009. Now hows that for a happy ending?. Source linkedin.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Feb 2014 07:06:53 +0000