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$18.4 billion dollars is a LOT of cash (to compare, Google raised $2.7 bn with their IPO). They can buy 18 SpaceX's, 2.3 Twitters or, you know, 18 more Instagrams. Their future is minted.

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> "18 SpaceX's, 2.3 Twitters"

This industry is so messed up...

I completely agree. When the perceived value of a company whose only asset is a clever idea and some hype is bigger than that of a established company with a real business model (say, Philips) you know you are treading into make-wish territory.

But nooo, say that to most people in the industry and they'll chew your head off for being narrow-minded and oblivious to how 'the economics of startups' works.

Oh, you will be down-voted times and times again for even posting things like that. It's self-preservation, since a large percentage of current start-ups rely on similarly ad-driven pie-in-the-sky schemes where the best and only possible exit is a sale to Facebook or another large entity with more money than sense.

Agreed. One is literally rocket science (ok, engineering) and if things go wrong, people die. The other is something I could code up this weekend, and if things go wrong, a tweet is mistweeted or delayed, oh noes.

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