“I’m not really a businessman, I’m an engineer. I like engineering and design. I don’t focus on return on investment, I create new technologies. Technology is the closest thing to magic in the world.”
—Elon Musk
Mark Zuckerberg was 22 when Yahoo offered $1 billion for Facebook, and his own team wanted him to take it. He went to Steve Jobs instead.
Jobs told him to go to India.
In the video below, Zuckerberg tells India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi what happened next.
"This is a story that I haven't told publicly and very few people know."
Facebook was 2 years old, with about 10 million users. Zuckerberg said no to Yahoo.
It was a tough patch, he says. A lot of people wanted to buy Facebook and thought he should sell.
So he went to one of his mentors, Steve Jobs.
Jobs told him to visit the temple in India he had gone to while figuring out what Apple should be.
Zuckerberg traveled for almost a month. It "reinforced for me the importance of what we were doing."
For early employees with stock, a $1 billion sale is a life-changing payout. Saying no means years of waiting, maybe for nothing.
Within a year of saying no to Yahoo, his entire management team had quit.
He never sold. Today Meta is worth over $1.4 trillion.
Yahoo offered $1 billion.
Steve Jobs offered a temple.
Would you have taken $1 billion at 22, or the ticket to India?
Save the video, and follow for more money stories from behind the world's biggest names.
Larry Ellison: “When WhatsApp sold for $19B, a lot of us were shocked… until we thought about it”
Back in 2014, Mark Zuckerberg paid $19 billion for WhatsApp and its 450 million monthly users.
A few months after the deal closed, the Oracle founder explained what Silicon Valley had missed at first:
“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,”
His point: think about what traditional businesses, cable companies for example, spend to win each customer.
“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.”
And he added:
“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.”
By 2025, WhatsApp had roughly 3.1 billion monthly users worldwide.
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Political leaders now have to govern on two tracks at once.
They are balancing immediate demands and pressures alongside preparing government for a technological revolution that could change how the state operates.
Tony Blair calls it ‘dual-track leadership’.
🚨 WATCH: Kemi Badenoch asks Andy Burnham if he agrees with the head of MI5 that talking about Russian interference in elections is a "mistake"
Burnham: "Well I could ask her whether she's even read the Russia report yet"
#PMQs
'It gave me goosebumps when the Tory leader said she doesn’t want a country run by people who debate the nationality of her mixed-race kids'
Read Sherelle Jacobs's full thoughts 👇
https://t.co/3hEq5bEXDd
Went into bat at @thetimes Brexit debate, thank you to the 1300 who came to listen, and to all those who have bought Pomp & Circumstance today. All proceeds going to veterans charities. Will be discussing the book later tonight. Thank you @cheltfestivals for a great event.
“Welcome back, Tory party: you are conservative again, courtesy of Kemi Badenoch.”
“You have rediscovered your soul, your philosophy, your people.”
@AllisterHeath says Nigel Farage suddenly has formidable competition on the Right 👇
https://t.co/KnfCLRxyVn
“It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline... But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.”
— Murray Rothbard
“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”
— Dale Carnegie
“Higher taxes will not reduce the deficit, except for a brief interval. They will simply increase government spending. That is the lesson taught by past experiences.”
— Milton Friedman