Stupidly overpriced app for sale thread

SunnY S

SunnY S

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$19 Billion, BILLION…… for a cross platform messaging app that turns a relatively small profit.

excuse me while I pick up my jaw off the floor.

[h=3]http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/19/technology/social/facebook-whatsapp/index.html[/h]
 
They have a lot of good will. They have a large customer base that is already used to the messaging software and uses it over other ones.

They see potential in tying it with their current platform.
 
I just use Viber
 
This whole FB and other companies buying out other companies reminds me of that old episode of the Simpsons where Bill Gates buys Homer's software company.

But in all seriousness, if you think about the numbers, they are a 55 employee operation that produces nothing yet magically they are now worth more than Harley-Davidson's entire worldwide operation and a bunch of other companies as well. HD and those companies produce stuff. Whatsapp makes nothing and it is wasting other people's money just like that Time-AOL merger. Seemed like a good idea at the time!
 
Zuckerberg is hedging his bet that he can buy BBM for $1.98 once the house of cards in Waterloo finally collapses and have a monopoly over messaging via data.
 
FullMotoJacket said:
Zuckerberg is hedging his bet that he can buy BBM for $1.98 once the house of cards in Waterloo finally collapses and have a monopoly over messaging via data.
Click to expand...

"finally", according the the pundits, they've been bankrupt since 2008 :lol:

-their stock popped by 10% upon the FB W.App acquisition announcement, validating the value of BBM which continues to experience exponential growth.

-their stock in general is up 50% from 6 months ago

-investor confidence is climbing...... Dan Loeb billionaire investor recently bought 10 million shares (2% of blackberry)


Yup, "finally" :lol:




Sent from my Z30 using Tapatalk
 
SunnY S said:
blah, blah, blah Blackberry, blah, blah, blah Honda, blah, blah, blah......
Click to expand...
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I don't know whether they're worth the money, but saying they make nothing is not correct. Software is a product and apparently a lot of people like this particular one.
 
Software of the IM variety is not a product IMHO. You code it once then copy it effortlessly to anyone who would like a copy. Your value as a business to the investor is what is the revenue stream. In Whatsapp case it was the annual fee of 99 cents or so a user for the honour of using their stuff. Later it will include the FB ad platform which is a different stream. FB also gains access to whatever contact lists you uploaded. This may or may not be a big deal. Their app is a vehicle of delivery. The product in this case is you the user, and the demographic data you bring.

BBM currently supports group chats and voice calls over data (through BBM). Whatsapp grew fast because it used phone numbers to identify people but if you change your phone number obviously that is now someone else, just like SMS.

The whatsapp checkmarks by the way did not indicate read like BBM or iMessage. If I recall right, 1 checkmark was confirming delivery to server, 2 checkmarks was confirming delivery to phone. But that's all.
 
19 billion cannot be explained, we need some examples of companies that are valued at less.

With less than 60 employees, WhatsApp is worth way more than Under Armour, Xerox, American Airlines, Akamai, Harley-Davidson, Hertz, and many others.

Source: Forbes

Good acquisition for Facebook? Yes!
But FB overvalued and overpaid for it.

They are paying $19 billion for something to "use", but they will not see the money back, and it is hard to see how much "benefit" they will get out of a deal worth that much money.
 
I don't want to get into a semantic debate, but "code it once and copy it effortlessly..." is true of all software. What makes it a product is the fact that someone is willing to buy it, and I don't necessarily mean pay for the software itself. It could be paying for a service that you need the "free" software to access, etc. In this particular case, I agree that the software seems like nothing special, but apparently enough people like it and fb decided to buy that customer base.
 
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