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Comment by TylerE | Hacker News Reader

Isn't that true for virtually EVERY big tech merger? Like, which ones have actually worked?

Google built its core advertising ecosystem on acquisitions (Applied Semantics, DoubleClick, AdMob, etc) and extended it into the mobile space by buying Android.

Youtube was also an acquisition.

Haven't heard much about successful Google acquisitions lately though.

Facebook bought Instagram and WhatsApp and they were both home runs. Zuckerberg knows how to buy companies.

That’s a different type of acquisition, right? Buying your competition. If nothing else you’ve wiped out a competitor.

Even that sometimes flops (HP/Compaq)

Facebook bought their eventual competitors by making an offer they couldn't refuse. Zuck knows Metcalfe's law.

Instagram and WhatsApp are still popular with consumers though. Meta didn’t kill them, if anything they’ve grown significantly.

Mostly true, but there are exceptions:

Apple does really well on its rare acquisitions, but they aren't very public as they get successfully absorbed. PA Semi, Intrinsity, more I can't remember.

ATi and Xilinx have by all accounts worked out really well for AMD.

The iPod

Android and PA Semi have worked out pretty well...

There are the occasional good ones, like instagram.

But I guess thats the problem - I had to provide an example

Broadcom is a good example of successful mergers.

Nvidia Mellanox

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