Does 1 Snapchat Equal 4 Instagrams?

Insane company valuations are a fact of life in the tech world. So perhaps we shouldn't be surprised at Wednesday's report that Snapchat — a tiny company with a single app and no income — turned down a $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook, or that it is said to have new investors that value the startup at $4 billion

You can make a lot of eyebrow-raising comparisons based on sale prices for other companies. For instance, Lucasfilm and Marvel, two companies which created decades of unforgettable imagery, both sold to Disney for $4 billion; therefore, each is apparently as valuable to our society as an app maker whose whole purpose is to annihilate imagery. Read more...