Catalyst Venture Partners

The past month has indicate that a feeding frenzy may be about to begin. Facebook (founded 2004) bought Instagram (2009) for $1 billion. Earlier, Zynga (2007) acquired OMGPop(2006) for $200 million . The feeding frenzy is a result of collective paranoia and greed. Facebook and Zynga recognise that just as they came from no where to being giants of the web so other companies can achieve the same. The strategy appears to be as soon as another company raises its head above the parapet and gain some traction acquire it. The fear stems from a strong belief that unless you are on the curve you will lose the edge and the head space of the target audience who value the new and the different ahead of the traditional values of brand, reliability etc. Innovation is all and Facebook and Zynga know that large companies are always behind the curve. There is a view that Facebook is old school , Zynga not yet but both have the same challenge of remaining on the edge.