The reason FaceBook turned down $1 Billion.....
 

Just got my FastCompany mag today...

The kid said by 2010 with 48 million users they will be making $969 Million and they are in it for the long haul....

OMG.....good for him.

$2 my final offer (dollars)

Because after all the publicity he got by declining the deal he can sell it for $1.1 billion.

lol, yea and then watch that facebook shit fall right off the map eventually...

man
 

1 word, fuck me - amazing sorry and best article ive read for years.

what an idiot 1 billion is more than 969 million AND he wouldnt have to wait another three yrs and take a chance of it losing value or being topped by something else.

what a dumb ass, unless he is doing like you tube guys did and holding out for a bigger offer but his intention is to try to make it higher from a competitor of the original offerer.

NO way he can be dumb enough to take a chance otherwise, is there ?

Guess he's throwing the dice, and betting on black.

Time will tell if he's a genius, or an idiot.

:2 cents:

yeah sure $1 billion is more then $969 million, but the question is, would you rather have $1 billion now, or $969 million in 3 years, and then even more the year after that, and even more the year after that?

Id rather take 1 billion now and collect intrest off that in the bank when facebook can take a shit over night and be worth nothing in a matter of days.

those sites arent really that stable. and how the fuck is it worth more than myspace? you would think myspace would have sold for way more.

That was a great article. Really inspirational.

He should have took it while he can.

well I should be so lucky to have to make that decison LOL......

But to answear your question, I would definatly take the money in hand. wouldnt even need to think about more than 5 mins for that kind of offer. :thumbsup

facebook will only be big until the next thing comes along, pretty foolish but i bet the guy will sell within the year for more.

its worth more than myspace because myspace isn't user friendly

the coding of Myspace sucks

Facebook has a huge backing from universities, our uiversity actualy advised in their newsletter that students join facebook!

he does right, a wise investment.

He should sell off 10% so he has $100mil to play around with for the next few years, and a bit of change left if the bubble bursts and the company goes bust.

That's provided that the net stays as it is for that long...

Anything could happen in 3 years that could change lots of things..
All it would take is someone that pops up with something similar, yet quite unique to pull the bottom out from under the guy...

Not a chance I'd wanna take... Turning down a billion bucks for a website seems to me to be some strange greed thing.. And I'd hate to think it's some, "Hey this is cool.. Let's see if we can get more!" kind of game...

oh it all makes sense now... not.

$1 Billion + 2 1/2 years interest - work > $969 million + 0 interest + still working.

theres the income from the site per year, as well as its net worth

if it was a billion cash not bullshit stock , then i would of took it and run

just the interest on 1B would be more that 90% of people make in a year :X he should have taken the money. At least I know I would have...

honestly...here's what I think:

Anyone who w/ startup experience can relate to what I'm about to say....

With any business; you make a business plan with the intention of making money...duh right?

Well, the journey of going from writing up that business plan, to putting it in action, to actually reaching your goals is more than you can ever anticipate. The highest highs and the lowest lows. By the time you reach your goals there feels like there is almost a genetic link between you and that business. You still have all these amazing ideas that you want to see come to fruition. And then at some point nearly every successful business owner ends up facing a decision to sell their business. At first you think to yourself "finally all the hard work is going to pay off". And then you actually think about how that would no longer be a part of your life.

I first faced this decision when I was only 16 years old and was contacted by the snowball networks about my network of video game review sites. I took the offer which was only in the high 5 figures but to a 16 year old it sounded pretty good at the time. Over the next 4 years I saw my network converted to a different business model and eventually a redirect to the IGN sites.

Lets face it; he would walk away with more money than he could ever spend from this offer. He's either a) a moron b) Does have bigger plans on the horizon that he believes in. If so, good for him for pursuing those goals c) He can't let go of his baby

My :2 cents:

If it's his first major business (and obviously being valued in the $1b region it's now seriously major) then I can understand that he wouldn't want to let it go. In a previous life I was in another service industry and kept my business open for at least a year after the profits went -ve... I spent so much time on it that I couldn't bring myself to close it. Incidentally, if I hadn't fallen into adult I wouldn't have been able to pay off the debts that I closed with relatively quickly.

Good on them! Hope they make enough to beat the $2 billion.

A billion if Im right is 1000 Millions

true dat:2 cents:

Good read so far.. anyone know how much http://www.fiveacross.com/home.html script sells for? It was listed in this article as the company cisco bought.

There is a one word answer for the question posed in the thread title:

GREED

thats a lot of money here. lol

1 million usd = 49 million philippine peso :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

He is stupid, that site can die off overnight and he will be left with nothing and crying tha the didnt take the billion from Yahoo

He's is utterly retarded. He could take the money and use 500 million to ensure that all his future generations will never have to work again.

He could use the other 500 million as VC - he could end up being involved in 3, 4 or 10 facebook-sized deals.

That's how billionainres become mega-billionaires.

Im starting to see the same delusional behavior over this whole web 2.0 thing as there was during the initial dot com boom. People who don't cash in huge when they can will go down hard.

I've used facebook for a long time, great site and as the article says I think people underestimate it. Consider it's target market is college/high school students and that alone is worth more than myspace who targets everyone and sucks at it.

surely with that logic, why on earth would anyone want to buy it? :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

somehow i think the buyers have a better understanding than the voyeurs do.

hes hardly stupid and I doubt he has made the decision purely on his own without any guidance.

Providing it lasts.

Like on of my mentors says to me all the time, its better to take the money off the table, then wait for a "What If"

I would've sold

Well... most people do pay taxes on their income. :Oh crap