So Facebook has acquired Instagram for a massive $1billion – not a bad return for a company that has only 11 employees! But what does this mean for recruitment – are we seeing a new tech bubble similar to the dot com boom or will organisations learn lessons from the past and invest in the sort of talent that can help them market – and more importantly – monetise these new products?
As an article on FT.com points out: “The deal is reminiscent of Google's acquisition of YouTube for $1.65bn in 2006 when video was becoming the latest web craze. The price seemed high at the time and it has taken years to show signs of paying off.”
Interestingly, while the Google/YouTube deal was entirely stock based, the Facebook/Instagram deal is based on cash as well as stock. While the actual amount hasn’t been disclosed, if the founders and employees of Instagram take a lot of cash it may be a sign that they won’t be around for ever - something that FT.com points out may be “a potential negative for Facebook which has used acquisitions in the past to attract senior talent to the company.”
One thing that is clear is that at the moment, this all good news for the media and entertainment jobs market as social media sites like Facebook are now multi million pound advertising and marketing businesses . According to an article in media week, Facebook now employs around 70 people in the UK, the majority of which work in sales. Additionally, it is expanding its workforce in London and is due to move in to larger premises. And think about the number of brands that are now using gamification to drive consumer engagement mixing entertainment with promotion. So for those with advertising sales skills, social media marketing experience and digital skill sets the future could be very bright indeed. Why not check out our latest jobs pages to see what’s available?