The other hits came from breaking laws against anti-competitive behavior by his company, which is the exact subject of the trial this article is based on.

Buying WhatsApp was about having the money and not being obviously blocked by courts.

Not exactly galaxy brain to decide to buy a lottery ticket that's already declared the winning one.

And not like they ruined it, I mean integrated/synergized it.

lots of people had money. Only mark bought whatsapp

It was a defensive acquisition most likely and the app has pretty much not changed functionally one bit from when he acquired it. He had no vision for it clearly.

I'm getting a bit of reddit vibes in that you only took part of what I said out of context, and ignored the rest.

But also yes it was very much a defensive acquisition, and my point about them not (yet) ruining it shows that there was no plan.

Buying another company from the spoils of your first hit doesn't make you not a one hit wonder. Especially since most of your bidding competitors would have been blocked by antitrust.

I don't know if the same is true for Instagram. I've never used it.

> recognizing which companies to buy

I bet it's really simple from the vantage point of being the owner of the biggest social app with billions to spare.

True. He hasn't actually built anything since the very first days.

“Recognizing which companies to buy” is your argument? That’s how low the bar is: money = smart. Buying your competitor for crazy high prices while paying even more to avoid antitrust laws is kinda the tech bro playbook.