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Foursquare Turns Down $100M
theodp writes "Valleywag is stupefied that 'an annoying, unprofitable social network like Foursquare would turn down $100 million,' a move inspired in part by Twitter's 2008 rejection of a $500 million offer from Facebook, which in turn once rejected a $900 million bid from Yahoo. Time will tell whether the move by Foursquare was a prescient one, but it's certainly gutsy. After all, today's $850 million company can prove to be tomorrow's worthless one, right AOL?"
Christ, I don't think I've ever even heard of these guys. They should have took the money & ran.
Agreed. With that kind of money you could almost afford your own US Senator ... or US Representative at the least. With one of those they could start pushing their pro-Square agenda. For far too long the Mods and the Rockers have enjoyed an unquestioned two party system ...
My work here is dung.
Why would one offer them 100 mio for it if it's so worthless, for one.
For two, why is money such a big deal? If you love what you do and can provide for yourself with it, why whore yourselves out? It's not about being filthy rich, but doing what you love, right?
I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
I don't think Yahoo has any friends.
A 2 minute long video, that's a howto.
30 seconds in I got bored.
even with this publicity, I think it is unlikely to take off.
Besides, losers who use foursquare are just begging to be stalked. It makes Facebook's abysmal privacy look positively friendly by comparison.
In fact, stalking foursquare losers ("fourstalking") has become quite the pastime, so much so that this attention junkie quit the service, despite craving the attention. A part of me feels sympathy...while another part can't help but feel these narcissists are getting exactly what they deserve.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
We're going Fivesquare
These start-ups love to pass themselves off as scrappy little guys nipping at the heels of giants. In my experience these companies, the vast majority of the time, are backed by investors with very deep pockets. These guys are undoubtedly banking on the hope that this investment will pay off in a big way. There's this infatuation investors have with these social sites and it's easy to see why. Minimal investment, little substance, but the pay offs can be huge if people get hooked. Why spend a fortune building a company that actually makes product, with the expense and work that comes with it, when you can just do this? And given that development can easily be outsourced to India these ventures even more attractive.
Right now they're at the hype generating phase. By turning down this offer they have garnered media attention. And amongst the ignorant masses people will believe that these guys are principled. I think they're waiting to hit critical mass with users. Their hope is that they become the next Twitter. Then they'll sell especially if they haven't figured out a way to make money on something that seems completely pointless.