The (19) billion-dollar question

The $19 billion Facebook-Whatsapp deal is making headlines. We think it's a waste of money!

 

It's all over the internet - the mother-of-all-mega-deals that has thrown focus on Facebook once again, and made Jan Koum (CEO of Whatsapp) almost as famous as Mark Zuckerberg in an instant. Mr. 'Facemash' Zuckerberg himself describes it as, 'No one in the history of the world has ever done something like this'. You look at the amount of money Facebook has shelled out and you go, 'Oh hell! I could have spent THAT on much better things'.

 

Naturally 19 billion dollars is a lot of money and spending it to acquire software is a little bit confusing. Car loonies like us don't get it. We are completely beside ourselves to see so much money going down the drain for something virtual.

 

So, we put on our thinking hats and invested some grey matter to see how many cars - and one thing that's more than that - can be bought with that kind of money. We've chosen these cars wisely and we will begin with the popular cars to the more exuberant ones. At the end of this tale, we will tell you exactly how many cars can be bought from a single manufacturer in that kind of money. Some are popular, the others exciting and some that will just blow your mind away. So, here goes -

 

A basic and great-selling hatch; in this case, the Hyundai Grand i10 - approximately 2,37,5000 units.

 

The default name that comes to mind when thinking 'Hot Hatch', the Volkswagen Golf GTi - approx. 6,33,000 units.

 

The Vauxhall VXR8 - you can get as many as 2,20,000 of this rear-drive maniacal fun-machine!

 

Toyota GT86 is the modern sportscar that brought back the brilliance of simplicity of the bygone sportscar era. The equivalent of Facebook-Whatsapp deal can get you about 7,60,000 units of this grin-plastering, unadulterated, back-to-the-basics coupe.

 

The engineering marvel - Buggatti Veyron - and you'd be able to own 9,500 units for that money!

 

The facial-structure-altering Formula One car - approx. 2,714 units.

 

The mind-numbing Sukhoi 30 MKi fighter jet - about 703 units. Imagine how brilliant our air defence would become with over 700 of these!

 

Some of you might think we've gone mental. Well, sorry, but we're motor freaks - and that's how we think such investments should be done!