When Mark Zuckerberg’s social network acquired the photo app Instagram this week, there was instant speculation about whether the popular photo-sharing service, for which Facebook laid out a cool $1 billion, will survive. Those fears aren’t unfounded: in 2010, Zuckerberg told a crowd of aspiring startup owners, “We have not once bought a company for the company. We buy companies to get excellent people.” The acquisitions Facebook made in the past, however, were usually very small companies, none of which compared in popularity with Instagram, a distinction Zuckerberg has emphasized when talking about the purchase. “This is an important milestone for Facebook because it’s the first time we’ve acquired a product and company with so many users,” Zuckerberg wrote in a post announcing the buy.
The Daily Beast collects 11 companies Facebook picked up only to shut them down.