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. Only time will tell if this acquisition ends up being a smart move for them. But, here’s 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. You’ve 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, didn’t get hired by Twitter or Facebook in 2009. Now how’s that for a happy ending?
Posted on: Thu, 20 Feb 2014 06:05:56 +0000
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