this is why most managers are useless
 

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/state_web_spring


check the yahoo bit

I couldn't get past the first one (instagram). It's so short-sighted, naive and dumb that there can't be any credibility in the rest of the site.

EDIT: OK, I gave it a second go to see if it got better. It didn't. The whole thing is created by people with no vision, no creativity, no knowledge of business, no sense of humour and no common sense.

It's just someone angry ranting. That doesn't mean it's actually right. I know that when I rant about something I don't really think objectively. Angry people don't make good judgements.

Does my head in that Yahoo and The Guardian show what you've read on Facebook. It's like being an American.

Nail on head kind of ****.

Facebook bought instagram because it was good business. If they didn't buy it, someone else would. Most of the sale price was in facebook shares, not cash.

no one cares about that part, thats why I said CHECK THE YAHOO BIT

It's all just sensationalist guff. It's the kind of thing you expect to see in a tabloid paper.

EDIT: It's hardly Yahoo's fault that facebook insist on app installation requiring confirmation. All news sources that have those links on facebook make you go through the same process. At least this way there is a chance of someone going to yahoo through the app, rather than no chance if they weren't on there.

I am assuming your post, particularly the bolded parts are tongue in cheek, like that site is intended to be. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ies/laugh1.gif

Always enjoyed this comic:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/facebook_suck

That website is genius. It reminds me of maddox before his rants started to get boring.

I was trying to be as OTT as that website, but I am concerned that the OP doesn't see it as tongue in cheek. You can make anything look terrible if you try hard enough.

I actually thought the instagram one was the funniest..I still can't get my head around the 1 billion, but hey good for them

I used to like Maddox but that was when I was a naive kid. I think The Oatmeal is far far better and does not come off as spiteful as Maddox.

You can also dismiss anything as tongue in cheek.

I think the comic artist is just making social commentary using comics although some of the stuff might be tongue in cheek, most of it is pretty accurate.

This one might be tongue in cheek but it's still makes a lot of sense.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/theoatmeal-i...cs/apple/3.png

This is just plain truth

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/websites_stop

Buying a customer base and a tool to lure in more customers. It was a smart business move.

It got up to 1 billion because twitter were going to buy it and facebook wanted it.

Price wars always push prices up, but the inflated purchase cost was obviously more of an advantage to Facebook than twitter owning the technology. If you go purely on the purchase price it doesn't make much sense.

I think it was a smarter move on Instagram's part to be put on sale.

To Facebook, it's an extra feature with an already big customer base but Instagram on it's own was just an app with no way of making money; now it's just a crowd drawing feature of a the bigger Facebook universe.

Besides, there are a lot of other Instagram competitors.

sure, but even though twitter wanted it, it doesn't make it any more worthwhile to purchase. I bet a lot of the 32 million users who use instagram already have a facebook account. Therefore, just developing their own app which would do the same as Instagram would seem to be the much cheaper option. Also already saying it's a smart business move is a bit premature. We still have to see if it was worth it. It's weird how internet changed the way of doing business.

If your competitors want something you want, and you can afford to head them off at the pass without breaking the bank then it's a good business decision to purchase it.

I just wish the Harvard trained acquisition accountants and statistical analysts that work at Facebook came to FM to get solid, professional advice. Might save themselves a few billion here and there.

They will have advised them that it's overpriced, but that's what they will have to pay if they want it. I don't know why anyone outside of the facebook investors thinks they know anything more about this deal than the media has reported.

Ultimately, it's like you deciding to spend £50 on the last pair of shoes in Next so that your mate doesn't have them instead. Facebook have plenty of cash reserves to buy it without it ever having an effect on their bottom line, even if it does turn out to be fiscally worthless.

Think back a few years to when Google bought Youtube. Oh, how we laughed.

Yes definitely because when we leave it in the hands of Harvard trained acquisition accountants and statistical analysts things never go awry and 2000 companies don't ever go bust.