In July 2006, Yahoo offered Facebook $1 billion. The board split: two members wanted to sell, but 22-year-old Mark Zuckerberg refused. That rejection became the hinge on which Facebook's entire future turned.
Do you know what the single most important event is in the history of Facebook? Buying Instagram for probably a billion bucks? It's a good guess, but no. So here's what it is. The most important single event in the history of Facebook was in July of 2006. We were about 2 years into the company's history and we received a $1 billion acquisition offer from Yahoo. The company had about $40 million in revenues, no profit. It was just a college site. The management team was a little bit nervous about a 22-year-old CEO, and there were about 3 of us on the board and 2 of us thought maybe we should take the offer. Would you take the offer at that age? I certainly would. I would have too. Okay, exactly, because we're not as smart as Mark Zuckerberg.
