> A bit of a sidenote, but after all, I remember how badly Zuck was clowned everywhere (including by FB shareholders and people here on HN) immediately after the purchase of Instagram and WhatsApp. People were saying that FB is dying and Zuck is trying to buy companies that are hyped but irrelevant to the core business out of desperation.

Most of HN didn't have some insider information which Facebook did. This information was acquired by surreptitious data logging of a VPN "security" app [0]. This is the same app which was controversially packaged as a "research" app and then forced to take down from the App store [1].

[0] https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebooks-onavo-gives-social-me...

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/22/17771298/facebook-onavo-p...