Mark Zuckerberg shares his secrets for acquiring companies
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Master of acquisitions
Facebook beat Google twice in closing deals on acquiring Oculus and WhatsApp. Recently, Mark Zuckerberg gave a rare insight into how he approaches acquiring other companies. Here are his four main acquisition strategies:
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Build relationships first
Zuckerberg approaches big acquisitions by first establishing friendships with the founders of the companies.
Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom with Mark Zuckerberg.
Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom with Mark Zuckerberg.
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Have a shared vision
According to Zuckerberg the main reason he was able to acquire Oculus for less than the $4 billion its team originally wanted was because he pitched a vision of collaboration between the two companies that everyone bought into.
Mark Zuckerberg tries the Oculus-powered Gear VR headset with Brendan Iribe.
Mark Zuckerberg tries the Oculus-powered Gear VR headset with Brendan Iribe.
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Sometimes use scare tactics
Zuckerberg admitted to sometimes scaring small startups by making them imagine how difficult it would be to run their businesses alone.
"That's less my thing, but I think if you are trying to help convince people that they want to join you, helping them understand all the pain that they would have to go through to build it out independently is a valuable tactic," he said.
It's not known if he used this tactic on Evan Spiegel, who famously turned down on Zuckerberg's $3 billion offer to buy Snapchat a few years ago.
"That's less my thing, but I think if you are trying to help convince people that they want to join you, helping them understand all the pain that they would have to go through to build it out independently is a valuable tactic," he said.
It's not known if he used this tactic on Evan Spiegel, who famously turned down on Zuckerberg's $3 billion offer to buy Snapchat a few years ago.