Ron N.

[Startup Archive @StartupArchive_]

Larry Ellison: “When WhatsApp sold for $19B, a lot of us were shocked… until we thought about it”

In 2014, Mark Zuckerberg bought WhatsApp and their 450 million MAUs for $19 billion.

“A lot of us [in Silicon Valley] were shocked — until we thought about it and understood the value of having access to that many consumers,” Oracle founder Larry Ellison says in this interview that took place a few months after the acquisition closed.

Ellison points out that you have to take into consideration how much traditional businesses (e.g. cable TV companies) pay to acquire customers:

“This is not the place to debate how much you can get through WhatsApp — $1 per year per customer is not going to do it — but I believe there will be opportunity to sell these same customers other things as they join your ecosystem.”

He continues:

“There was quite a battle between Facebook and Google over that property. It wasn’t that one guy did something really silly with a lot of money. Mark Zuckerberg won an auction over Google and paid a high price but got a very valuable asset in the 21st century.”

As of 2025, WhatsApp has approximately 3.1 billion MAUs globally.

[lawilog 🇪🇺 @lawilog]

@nntaleb So... if researchers wanted to publish only reliable findings, they could. But we can't tell if they post-selected their studies? https://t.co/R0tgLpSKdz

[Ron N. @Ron_ngt]

@ESPNNBA @KendrickPerkins @ShamsCharania He is moving the needle, not just in the right direction 😬.

[Ron N. @Ron_ngt]

@yishan Thank you so much for bringing so much clarity and educating the rest of us. These kinds of knowledge based perspectives are rare these days. So thank you 🙏

[Ron N. @Ron_ngt]

@kolokojunior1 Congratulations 👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿

[Ron N. @Ron_ngt]

@kareem_carr That's a great illustration, clearly applies to confidence interval in the frequentist context but do you think that's also the case for bayesian estimates ? I think not right ? 🤔

[Ron N. @Ron_ngt]

@haralabob That's quite baffling !!!!

[Ron N. @Ron_ngt]

@CuffsTheLegend Also Lakers have to be more judicious when going for offensive rebounds, no need to crash if your chances are slim. Run back on defense !!!

[Ron N. @Ron_ngt]

@KevinOConnorNBA Neither play on

[Ron N. @Ron_ngt]

@KevinOConnorNBA Shush Kevin don't say it out loud. Lakers fan need the bear poker on the court shooting 3s.

[Ron N. @Ron_ngt]

@Carnage4Life IYKYK

[Ron N. @Ron_ngt]

@BronMuse @KingJames @Lakers @ESPNNBA @statmuse Nah change that chart make it about Rui and Reaves !!!

[Ron N. @Ron_ngt]

@Carnage4Life A caveat I would add here is that maybe retention won't be as impacted because we are in a tough macro environment where all major tech companies face the same challenge. People who quit need to find a new role but most big tech is downsizing. And not better for startup either.

[terence @researchremora]

Back to population density maps with one of Cameroon.

#rayshader adventures, an #rstats tale

[Ron N. @Ron_ngt]

@bpoppenheimer This is so profound, thanks for sharing!!!

[Ron N. @Ron_ngt]

@JoshuaOgundu You know it's coming 🤣🤣🤣

[Ron N. @Ron_ngt]

@ChristopheLloyd @TheNBACentral @IanBegley Very astute observation !!!

[Ron N. @Ron_ngt]

@dantley I wonder if increasing ad loads so dramatically and adding promotion in replies lead to churn in the long term.

[Ron N. @Ron_ngt]

@ShannonSharpe Exactly 💯.

[Ron N. @Ron_ngt]

@LakeShowYo You can't have heart disease and root for these Lakers man. They are the cardiac kids 😂😂😂😂