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WhatsApp Founder Used Unchangable Airline Ticket To Pressure Facebook

Posted by timothy on from the they-knew-what-they-were-getting-into dept.

McGruber writes "In a post on the Flyertalk website, WhatsApp founder Jan Koum provides another interesting detail about how he steered WhatsApp into a $16 billion deal with Facebook: 'we announced the deal with Facebook on wednesday after the market closed. during the process, we realized there was a chance we might not be able to get the deal wrapped up and signed on wednesday and it could delay. when the risk of the delay became real, i said: "if we don't get it done on wednesday, it probably wont get done. i have tickets on thursday to fly out to Barcelona which i bought with miles and they are not easily refundable or even possible to change. this has to be done by wednesday or else!!!"...and so one of the biggest deals in tech history had to be scheduled around my M&M award ticket."

5 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. Refund. by o_ferguson · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hey should give all 450 million customers a $1 refund for the service outage that happened after the deal went through.

    --
    - In Soviet Korea, only old people loose all their bases to Natalie Portman's petrified hot grits overlords.
    1. Re:Refund. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      He sold it. It's not his problem any more. Facebook can refund or whatever.

  2. his last miles award.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    think he'll be flying to Barca on a private jet next time.. at at least a full fare F ticket.

  3. We Better Get This Deal Done ASAP... by raftpeople · · Score: 4, Funny

    or my 16oz latte is going to get cold and I will need to buy another one.

  4. Re:Really though? by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Funny

    At least he can afford a new keyboard now. One with a shift key, maybe.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."