The "dot com" bubble burst of 2000 may be nothing compared to what may happen if we're headed for another burst.
Paying WhatsApp 19 billion with no patent portfolio and 55 employees is fukking scary.
Someone help educate me.
You don't necessarily needs a patent to protect software. If the "idea" is not able to be patented, then the code for the program is covered by copyright (or at least it should be).
For example, you can design an e-mail program for Apple computers that will send and receive e-mails. These programs already exist, but how you implement it may be different.
I think some companies jump too high when buying out smaller software development companies, e.g. the Instagram buyout was way too much money in my opinion.
The dot com bust is not really related to over-priced software companies. It was a result of the need for web development, front-end, back-end, and everything in between. The web was growing fast from the 90s and wasn't slowing down. The dot com bust of 2000 was the result of the oversaturation of web site developers. Big companies slowed down web development and medium and small companies didn't bring in enough revenue to pay for more web development. Results didn't justify costs. No need to pay $100,000 for a dumb-azz website a college undergraduate could create in a week. Non-tech saavy companies didn't realize this in their ignorance and just dumped money it web development as a result of the race to create and maintain a company's presence on the web.
The current trend of buying out companies in the social media space and smartphone app space is also being driven by popularity, but the size of the tech bubble isn't as huge. Yeah, there's a need for Android developers and the jobs are out there, but nothing on the level of pre-2000s. Paying for moving expenses, sign-on bonuses. That's all gone.
