Facebook can only buy those who want to be bought. Facebook could've been bought out (and many said they should have - which in hindsight would've been a horrific move).
If companies really care about innovation, they can focus on that instead of flipping their companies.
To say that the proposition to be bought is a fair choice is silly when it comes with the threat "otherwise we will copy your business and attempt to crush it to death". Ask Snapchat about that. It's practically a "join us or else".
This is a particularly bad comment considering that the parent comment just mentioned a celebrated example of not doing this (whatever else one thinks of Facebook). Moreover we've asked you before not to rant like this. "Publicly jerk themselves off"? Ew.
If you have nothing substantive or thoughtful to say, the principle here is not to comment until you do.
Yeah, but the money from small company acquisitions can be used to jumpstart "changing the world". PayPal may not have changed the world, but the money Elon got from that was enough to fund Tesla and SpaceX, which very well may change the world. You need a large amount of personal capital if you want to directly fund a (crazy) breakthrough vision.
If companies really care about innovation, they can focus on that instead of flipping their companies.