Facebook announced the acquisition of TBH, an app for polls and social media start-up, the week of October 17, 2017. This had me wondering, could Steemit ever be an acquisition target, and would that make the token owners all millionaires (perhaps not me with my 30 SP, but you)?
Sourced linked at bottom of this article
TBH, I've never heard of TBH?
TBH is an app that allows teenagers to create anonymous polls and give anonymous compliments to one-another. The app was released in August and has over 5 million downloads in the Apple App Store.
A Sense of Community or a Take-Out?
According to the Washington Post article, TBH's positive theme of anonymous compliments is in line with Facebook's overall mission of building communities. According to Yahoo Finance's article, FB was likely drawn to the app due to its young userbase. In my personal view, while this could be true, there is another angle.
The fact that this App has only existed for a few months prior to acquisition raises an eyebrow. The rapid growth in the app is also a factor that makes TBH an attractive acquisition target. Perhaps FB is jumping on new opportunities to buy popular companies before they become competition (look what happened to Snap Chat). Effectively, to acquire an early, successful company and monetize/scale the company is better than fighting with it down the road.
How much did TBH get paid?
The financial terms of the deal were not reported, however it sounds like the price is under $100 million, which is very far from a unicorn status. I can recall cringing when FB acquired What's App for 19 Billion (predominantly through share dilution), today in 2017 we are in the early innings of montezation. To be honest, TBH could just be a short-term flame like the Fidget Spinner. Further, for all we know TBH could grow so rapidly that it does not have enough moderators to filter all of the nasty polling ideas that the internet could think of, and the idea just implodes (yes, the app actually moderates the polls before allowing them). Do we honestly expect that TBH will never have any "Roast me polls."
Could Steemit, Inc. be acquired?
I don't have a crystal ball and I am not an investment banker. However, I do know from research there are so many great plans ahead for Steemit with SMT, and there is continuous user growth (at approximately 400k users, and 25-30k daily actives credit: penguinpablo). If Steemit simplifies the account creation process and eventually goes viral to attract users in the millions, it is possible the Steemit becomes attractive to the Social Media Unicorns.
I own STEEM Tokens, does that make me an owner in Steemit stock, and a potential millionaire on a take-out?
Bad News: Steemit, Inc. is a privately owned corporation; it is not publicly traded. When you own STEEM tokens (STEEM, SP, SBD), this does not represent an ownership interest in Steemit Inc.
Good News: If Steemit, Inc. was ever acquired by a Social Media giant, the benefit that STEEM token owners would most likely received is the hopefully significant increase in the value of the STEEM tokens. This is no guarantee, but I would hope an acquisition by a Social Unicorn is validation of the value in the platform.
Takeaway
Social Media is a very young industry. Cryptocurrency is an infant. There is interesting opportunity down the road.
Sources
Information regarding FB's acquisition
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/facebook-fb-announces-acquisition-popular-154603840.html
Information regarding Steemit, Inc. and STEEM tokens can be found in the FAQ section of Steemit.com
Disclaimer I own shares of Facebook. This article is not personal investment advice regarding any public or privately traded company, or cryptocurrency; do your own research. No one should base their decision to investment in any company or cryptocurrency on the contents of this article.
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