TOW Post #19

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2014/02/20/its-unanimous-facebook-buying-whatsapp-is-the-best-or-worst-deal-ever/

Facebook recently bought the mobile messaging service WhatsApp for $19 billion, acquiring a 5 year old company that was well on the rise towards becoming a popular application that consumers could use to reach their friends without having to go through text messaging. Most analysts seem to agree on the fact that this deal was simply not worth the money that Facebook has invested. According to people like Jon Swartz from USA Today, the deal was "downright silly", and due to Rob Enderle it seemed to be a desperate move by Facebook, who is currently having to deal with a massive slowing of user growth and advertisement growth. The author of this piece, Forbes' own Jeff Bercovici, seems to agree with these points of view. His favorite quote regarding Facebook's purchase was from Henry Blodget, who calls the decision, depending on how it turns out, either brilliant or incredibly moronic. Throughout, the Bercovici uses exemplification, or repeated testimony from analysts, to convey the idea that this purchase was probably not a good idea for Facebook. He uses a lighthearted diction to almost make it seem as though he's making fun of Facebook, or not taking the purchase seriously due to how bad of a decision it was. But due to the amount of negative commentary he added to the article, it appears that he seems to agree that WhatsApp wasn't worth $19 million.