Quote of the day

So Facebook spends $19 billion on WhatsApp.  It won't make a lot of difference to me but I liked this description of the deal:

Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, said: “Facebook’s technology deals are often not hinged on cash flows but more on controlling a competitor that could ultimately pose a great threat to Facebook’s dominance and market value.

“In essence, it’s a paranoid defence play in the spirit of Intel that pursued the same strategy back in the old days to fend off new competitors. But only the paranoid survive right? Investors are not entirely impressed by the acquisition.”

A paranoid defence play?  Let's run that one up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes it ...