After Facebook acquired Instagram they were really clear that they wanted them to stay independent. I wonder how "independently" they made this decision to switch to Facebook Places instead of Foursquare. Instagram ads are most likely just Facebook's new ad platform. Facebook just removed their Camera app from the app store (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2457866,00.asp) because Instagram IS their Camera app.

I can't think of any recent acquisitions where the same type of lies weren't uttered.

"We're so happy to be joining Billion Corp. We feel that they will let us stay independent and stick to our goals. We will continue to provide the same awesome experience you all came to know and love before we sold out."

"We're so happy to be acquiring talent instead of finding it. We will totally not, not make their project theirs instead of ours, depending on our lawyers, and our shareholders. Frankly, we're just glad we didn't have to actually spend time building a good product and hiring people like these folks, since they would've never joined us in the first place."

> "After Facebook acquired Instagram they were really clear that they wanted them to stay independent."

Snort. Giggle. Boy have I heard that one before. Everyone says that about every acquisition that isn't an acquihire. Hell, a lot of the time they even mean it.

I have yet to see a single acquisition that promised independence and autonomy actually maintain it for an extended period of time (say, multiple years).

Tbh, if it was done outside the US/Canada, I'd say it could have been an independent decision. As others have said, outside of NA, all I hear is people complaining about the quality of Foursquare's data. ;)

That said...is anyone who actually thought about it really that surprised?

They are almost always being deceptive when they make claims of "independence", "nothing will change", etc. The truth is, most companies choose to maximize shareholder value/profits over other ethical constraints because C-level compensation is chained to the shareholder's interests as best as can be managed in most companies.

It would have been nice if Facebook was more like Buffer [e.g. Transparent, Honest], but does anyone ever really seeing a company like Buffer growing to even 5% of Facebook's current Market Cap [150 Billion]?

Deception works at scale. Politics have proved that quite well, unfortunately.

I don't see this as a sign of lack of independence or evidence of lying. There are very good reasons for anyone to use Facebook places even if the US data is momentarily inferior. These sentiments strike me as unwarranted "gotcha" attempts that have little value.

It's certainly a tough line. You can say you want to be independent, but if one service charges $$$$ and another charges $0, it's hard to pick the pricey one.

And is a great illustration of the potential downsides of highly vertical tech companies.

Not really. They could just as easily have switched from Foursquare to a different third-party location provider.