15 Surprising Tech Mergers That Could Have Happened But Didn't (Infographic) MySpace could have snagged Facebook. Facebook could have scored Snapchat. Alas, there are many offers that can be refused. Not every match is made in heaven.
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In 2005, when Facebook was only a year old and still called TheFacebook, co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered to sell the social-media startup to MySpace for $75 million. That's chump change in today's tech unicorn boom. Bargain deal or not, MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe wasn't having it. A year later, Zuckerberg tried again. This time he tacked on a zero, upping the price to $750 million. No dice. DeWolfe again refused.
Now Facebook is a $274 billion company and MySpace is...uh, we can't remember either.
Facebook's $3 billion cash bid for Snapchat in is another remarkable acquisition proposal that got shot down. Snapchat co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel cockily snubbed Zuckerberg's 2013 offer, brushing it off as a means to "some short-term gain." Smart move, Spiegel. Today Snapchat, now used for much more than just sexting, is worth an estimated $16 billion and boasts some 100 million daily active users. Not bad, even if it has a ways to go to catch up to Facebook, which continues to poke at Snapchat's trendiest features.
Related: Snapchat, Like Facebook, Now Boasts 4 Billion Video Views Every Day
For a quick look at other tech industry acquisition offers put forth in vain, for better or for worse, check out the infographic from the website sales firm Empire Flippers.
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