Apologies to Mr. Zuckerberg
After it was reported early last year that Facebook had turned down a $750 million offer, Business 2.0 blasted Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, putting him on their list of 10 people who don't matter. The article, conveniently authored by "Business 2.0 Magazine staff", stated,
In entrepreneurship, timing is everything. So we'll give Zuckerberg credit for launching his online social directory for college students just as the social-networking craze was getting underway. He also built it right, quickly making Facebook one of the most popular social-networking sites on the Net. But there's also something to be said for knowing when to take the money and run. Last spring, Facebook reportedly turned down a $750 million buyout offer, holding out instead for as much as $2 billion. Bad move. After selling itself to Rupert Murdoch's Fox for $580 million last year, MySpace is now the Web's second most popular website. Facebook is growing too - but given that MySpace has quickly grown into the industry's 80-million-user gorilla, it's hard to imagine who would pay billions for an also-ran.
A year later, most people in the valley seem to agree that Facebook made the right move. In the year that has passed since the Business 2.0 article, Facebook has opened up to the public, continued in its exponential growth, raised $25 million more in venture capital, and launched the innovative Facebook Platform.
In light of Facebook's continued success, "Business 2.0 Magazine staff" has decided to move Zuckerberg from the "loser" list to their new list titled "Who matters now?". In the new list, they write,
Zuckerberg was a 19-year-old Harvard student when he launched his social network for students. Three years later, Facebook is open to anyone and is the sixth most visited site on the Internet, with some 24 million users and enough clout to turn down a reported billion-dollar buyout offer from Yahoo (and to make us regret putting him last year on our online-only list of the 10 Who Don't Matter).
In retrospect, it looks like Facebook knew what they were doing and Zuckerberg mattered all along.
