The Silicon Valley Slots

Yesterday I tweeted this:

If Zuck was wise – which I’m sure he is – Facebook would focus on mobile and use it as an opportunity to right many of their wrongs.

Today Mark Zuckerberg announced this:

I’m excited to share the news that we’ve agreed to acquire Instagram [for $1 Billion] and that their talented team will be joining Facebook.

Job well done, but $1 billion?

I have to wonder what affect this valuation of folly will have on the industry. Enter the legions of misguided overnight entrepreneurs and VCs, both out for a piece of the pie. For those out of the industry (or rather, yet to enter) we are turning the industry into some kind of slot-machine spree; whereby a few lucky players hit the jackpot, inordinate jackpots. Add to this decadent soup a reality show and it’s hard to deny that a crash of some description is increasingly probable.

Whatever the case, $1 billion is stupid.