Buying WhatsApp was about having the money and not being obviously blocked by courts.
Not exactly galaxy brain to decide to buy a lottery ticket that's already declared the winning one.
And not like they ruined it, I mean integrated/synergized it.
I'm getting a bit of reddit vibes in that you only took part of what I said out of context, and ignored the rest.
But also yes it was very much a defensive acquisition, and my point about them not (yet) ruining it shows that there was no plan.
Buying another company from the spoils of your first hit doesn't make you not a one hit wonder. Especially since most of your bidding competitors would have been blocked by antitrust.
I don't know if the same is true for Instagram. I've never used it.
lots of people had money. Only mark bought whatsapp