actually, it makes perfect sense. it's just that you (and I) don't have the right perspective.
these giantcos are sitting on Himalayan ranges worth of cash, which is burning a fiery hole in their butts, and they don't know what to do with it.
and they have more cash than sense, even though they always brag about having some of the smartest people in the world, and also have FOMO (to competitors and upstarts).
Facebook buying WhatsApp for 19 billion did not make sense to us laymen either, but it happened.
I was flabbergasted when I read about it. ignorant me.
wow, faaak. I wrote my above comment off the cuff, although based on my intuition and common sense, but just now thought of googling FOMO, to check what Wikipedia says about it, and it seems they agree with me:
relevant excerpt, from near the top of the above page (emphasis mine):
>FOMO can also affect businesses. Hype and trends can lead business leaders to invest based on perceptions of what others are doing, rather than their own business strategy.[19] This is also the idea of the bandwagon effect, where one individual may see another person or people do something and they begin to think it must be important because everyone is doing it. They might not even understand the meaning behind it, and they may not totally agree with it. Nevertheless, they are still going to participate because they don't want to be left out.[20]
leaders, huh? more like followers, aka sheep. include me out.
actually, it makes perfect sense. it's just that you (and I) don't have the right perspective.
these giantcos are sitting on Himalayan ranges worth of cash, which is burning a fiery hole in their butts, and they don't know what to do with it.
and they have more cash than sense, even though they always brag about having some of the smartest people in the world, and also have FOMO (to competitors and upstarts).
Facebook buying WhatsApp for 19 billion did not make sense to us laymen either, but it happened.
I was flabbergasted when I read about it. ignorant me.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayas
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhatsApp
go figure (pun intended)
edit: you answered your own doubt about why does not make sense:
>Also looks like Google is desperate for growth in Cloud and they need to do something.
that's what I said, FOMO.
man, if i sold even one of my software products for even a zillionth of such amounts, I would be on Mount Kailash (cloud 9 to you :)
grrr. envy emoji here.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Kailash
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kailasha