That describes Google buying Youtube and Facebook buying WhatsApp, those seem to have turned out okay.

WhatsApp is not profitable yet. At least not as October 2024.

YouTube had the advantage of being able to post pirated videos something that I'm not sure Google would have been able to do. YouTube gained traction in ways Google couldn't duplicate.

People do this exact thing all the time. Facebook paid $1 billion for Instagram whenever Facebook's cash and marketable securities was only $9-10 billion, even though Facebook already had a mobile social media app.

That was a mostly stock deal, right?

I couldn't remember, thanks for raising that point. So, I searched and found this CNET article[0] which states Facebook ended up only paying $715 million: "Although Instagram's original price tag was $1 billion, Facebook ends up paying $521 million in cash and $194 million in stock for the popular photo-sharing network."

I guess not mostly stock, but still half a billion cash, although not $1 billion. I guess my original point still stands, though it isn't quite as impactful an example. :)

[0] https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/facebooks-fi...