Mark Zuckerberg also turned down a $15 Billion dollar offer from Microsoft.

But there's a difference between turning down a bid because you want to maintain control over your vision and because you think your company is just worth more than the offer. The point is just that if you get what you think is a fair offer, and it's a very large offer, it would be hard for most people to say no.

It's obviously not impossible for someone to turn down a billion dollar offer because they think it's not enough, or to maintain control over their company. But I think people drastically underestimate how easy it would be to not sell out and walk away. The kind of people who will look at that offer and say "no thanks" are far and few between. There is a non-trivial chance that most of us have not met anyone like that.

Also of note: Groupon turned down $6B from Google. They now have a market cap of $1.6B 11 years later.

https://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/win-win-daily/win%C2%AD-wi...