Instagram's 48-Hour Acquisition
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A story about how Mark Zuckerberg acquired Instagram through intense focus and urgency, outmaneuvering Twitter's existing offer.
"Kevin Systrom, Instagram's founder, had a $500M offer from Twitter and Sequoia was offering to fund them at the same valuation to stay independent. But Zuck wouldn't take no for an answer.
Zuck invited Kevin to his house on Good Friday, right before Easter weekend. He said, 'I thought about it and I want to buy your company.' Kevin said he already said no, but Zuck responded, 'I will give you double whatever you're currently raising your round at' - making Instagram worth $1B. Nobody had ever paid this much for a mobile app before.
Zuck said they had to do the deal that weekend. They stayed together for 48 hours. He called his lawyers and corp dev team to come over. They worked through the entire weekend to hash out a $1B deal - something that typically takes 6-9 months to complete. By the time the competition woke up on Monday, the deal was done.
The reason Zuck did this was because he believed if we don't create the thing that kills Facebook, somebody else will. The internet's not a friendly place - I have to act with a certain level of intensity when we find a deal like this."
Shaan Puri
Host of MFM
Shaan Puri is the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Milk Road. He previously worked at Twitch as a Senior Director of Product, Mobile Gaming, and Emerging Markets. He also attended Duke University.