Why Facebook Should Acquire Foursquare - Caleb Elston

I've assumed that Facebook would be adding location to their mobile clients in the near future. In doing so, they won't hav to resort to the games Foursquare uses to try to get to critical mass. I also doubt that foursquare has any key infrastructure pieces that would be useful at facebook scale. In short, an acquisition doesn't make much sense, other than as an acquire to hire signing bonus.

I think the best positioned player in the mobile location based service space is Apple. They are well positioned to get paid well, no matter what service ends up winning over the most users.

I fail to see how this makes sense as a Facebook acquisition. There are plenty of location-based social networks out there with many times the users and, I'm absolutely sure, available on more devices than this is.

It looks like more of a Facebook application than an integral part of Facebook.

Dennis watched Dodgeball get acquired by Google, neglected, and then killed. Foursquare is what Dodgeball would have been a few years later had Google given it any TLC (and it also might have been Twitter).

I think he might think twice before selling to anyone based on that experience.