I mean... not to rain on anyone's parade.
Perhaps someone just came to their senses?
19 billion dollars, for a messenger app, is more than just a little bit ridiculous.
It's the kind of ridiculous that will be a runner-up in wikipedia for most idiotic business move ever.
Then again, they also thought the same about AOL/TimeWarner, and they were absolutely right then.
It's usually pretty futile to try to predict the future. I can see Zuck's reasoning with the Whatsapp purchase, though, and I don't think he's insane. He and Larry probably understand the structure of the tech industry a lot better than most people.
They don't need to understand it - they define it.
It was definitely the right move, but this situation can't be compared to the WhatsApp acquisition.