CASE 6-2 NOT GETTING FACE TIME AT FACEBOOK
In August 2009, Facebook turned down job applicant Brian Acton, an experienced engineer who had previously worked at Yahoo and Apple. More than 4 years later, Facebook paid him $3 billion to acquire his 20% stake of WhatsApp, a start-up he had cofounded immediately after Facebook rejected his job application.(1) WhatsApp Messenger is a proprietary, cross-platform, instant-messaging subscription service for smartphones and selected feature phones that use the Internet for communication.
In addition to text messaging, users can send each other images, video, and audio media messages, as well as their location using integrated mapping features.(2) How could Facebook, a highly successful firm, have made such a drastic mistake?
Back in 2009, Brian Acton was a software engineer who was out of work for what seemed like a very long time. He believed he had what it took to make a difference in the industry, but his career did not work out as planned. Even though he spent years at Apple and Yahoo, he got rejected many times by Twitter and Facebook.(3) Acton described the details of the interview process that he failed to do well in as follows: