Bill Gates: Microsoft would have bought WhatsApp too, but not for $19B

Loved this comparison of 3 visionaries of our times by one of the 3:<p><i>Gates praised Zuckerberg’s drive, but described him as “more of a product manager”, insisting that he was more of a coder starting with architecture where Zuckerberg “starts with products, and Steve Jobs started with aesthetics.”</i><p>Gates = sw engr; Zuck = Product Manager; Jobs = UX. (To add to it, I would say Page&#x2F;Brin = research scientist.) These really reflect what each company has morphed into. MSFT ended up as the largest software company, FB is probably one of the most widely used product ever. Apple makes the best UI. And Google uses research ideas, spits them into beta products quickly and rinses and repeats.

They should never have needed to even consider buying WhatsApp...I will never understand why Microsoft killed of there Messenger platform. I guess you could say because they bought skype and didnt want fragmentation, but skype served an entirely different use case. When it was still around I had the IM app on my phone and it was fine. Expanding it to lower end phones and supporting the social community would have done it.<p>--EDIT-- <i>Microsoft reported the service attracted over 330 million active users each month, placing Messenger among the most widely used instant messaging clients in the world.</i> [1]<p>[1]<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSN_Messenger" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;MSN_Messenger</a>

Nice quote at the end:<p><i>Gates praised Zuckerberg’s drive, but described him as “more of a product manager”, insisting that he was more of a coder starting with architecture where Zuckerberg “starts with products, and Steve Jobs started with aesthetics.”</i>

Looked at differently, Facebook&#x27;s P&#x2F;E is 7 times Microsoft&#x27;s. FB didn&#x27;t pay $19B they paid $16B in their own over-valued stock.<p>And their stock is more over-valued than MSFT&#x27;s so that explains the differential.

The Rolling Stone interview that this story is based on is actually pretty fascinating - I recommend it: <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/bill-gates-the-rolling-stone-interview-20140313" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rollingstone.com&#x2F;culture&#x2F;news&#x2F;bill-gates-the-roll...</a>. While his opinions on the myriad subjects that interests him and his foundation can be argued and debated (and whose opinions couldn&#x27;t, honestly), you cannot deny his pragmatism.

Econ 101, products are worth different amounts to different people.

Part of the reason it sold for $19B was because Google, Facebook, and Microsoft were interested. Narrow that down to one bidder, and all of a sudden you have an app that sells for millions instead of billions. The power that comes with being wanted by more than one party is incredible...it is the reason why Mozilla was able to triple their payout from a company that had already built a worthy competitor.

He said he didn&#x27;t say they wouldn&#x27;t buy it for $19B...<p>&gt; Microsoft would have been willing to buy it, too. I don’t know for $19bn, but the company’s extremely valuable

I am unsure how Microsoft would be able to leverage Whatsapp. It would be hard to use it to drive Windows Phone acceptance and it has negligible value as a desktop app.

Am I the only one who switched completely to email and cloud storage? Who uses SMS anymore, email uses the data connection and you can upload&#x2F;download gigabytes on GDrive&#x2F;OneDrive (former SkyDrive, Microsoft is at it again).<p>I just see WhatsApp&#x27;s value dropping as more and more people switch to actual smartphones...

To write it off 3 years later?<p>Skype used to work well until ebay interrupted it. Now with MS, the bloated UI takes forever to load and I can&#x27;t login for 3-4 minutes. If whatsapp can start in a snap on a mobile device and use so little background resource, why can&#x27;t skype achieve that. The users will come automatically if you have a compelling product.

If you&#x27;d have bought WhatsApp, you&#x27;d have bought WhatsApp.

so....how do I get the big three companies bidding on my company? Do I email Zuckerburg and say,<p>&quot;Yo, Larry Page just bid X,XXX,XXX,XXX what&#x27;s your offer, hurry cuz I might take it&quot;<p>and then go to Larry Page and say<p>&quot;Hi, Zuckerburg just bid XX,XXX,XXX,XXX what&#x27;s your final offer, hurry cuz I might take it&quot;<p>Sit back and watch valuation go up?