招人看走了眼 Facebook付出了190億美元的代價

Five years ago, Facebook turned down Brian Acton for a job.

五年前，Facebook曾經拒絕了軟件工程師布萊恩o阿克頓的求職。

The Orlando, Fla.-raised software engineer had worked at Yahoo YHOO 0.60% for over a decade when he decided to take time off. For two years he did, exploring places as far-flung as Antarctica before returning to Silicon Valley to work again. After companies like Facebook FB -0.24% and Twitter TWTR 3.01% rejected him, he started building WhatsApp, a mobile messaging service that eventually exploded, amassing 500 million users worldwide. Then last February, Facebook stunned the world when it announced it was scooping up WhatsApp for a jaw-dropping $19 billion – the most it had ever paid for a startup. By one estimate, Acton will be worth at least $3 billion when the deal closes, which is expected later this year.

國佛羅里達州奧蘭多市，在雅虎（Yahoo）工作了十多年後，阿克頓決定歇一歇。他在兩年的時間裏四處遊歷，甚至遠赴南極，後來纔回到硅谷重新開始工作。先後遭到Facebook和Twitter等公司拒絕後，阿克頓開始開發移動短信服務WhatsApp，結果一炮而紅，在全球吸引了5億用戶。今年二月，Facebook宣佈豪擲190億美元收購WhatsApp，震動了外界。這也是Facebook收購新創企業最大手筆的一次。交易預計在今年晚些時候達成，據估計，屆時阿克頓的身家至少將達到30億美元。

That Facebook once rejected Acton, 42 is an irony not lost on him. But far from being bitter he says he looks forward to working with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and crew. “We might disagree on some topics, but they understand what communication is like, and they understand the issues around privacy and security,” Acton explained Wednesday at StartX, a non-profit organization for Stanford University entrepreneurs.

阿克頓明白，如今看來，他曾求職Facebook被拒頗有些諷刺意味。不過，他完全沒有因此而忿忿不平。相反，他表示自己很期待與Facebook首席執行官馬克o扎克伯格及其團隊共事。上週三，在爲斯坦福大學（Stanford University）創業者服務的非營利機構StartX上，阿克頓說：“我們或許在某些問題上看法不同，但他們明白通訊是怎麼回事，他們也瞭解與隱私和安全相關的問題。”

Reaching a $19 billion deal was a roundabout journey for Acton and Koum. For one, Acton was already 38 when he helped build WhatsApp. Before that, he spent three years at Apple AAPL 0.39% and over 11 years at Yahoo, where he met WhatsApp CEO and cofounder Jan Koum and eventually became the company’s vice president of engineering. (Acton also weathered a divorce and had children.) It’s a different — and far longer — trajectory compared to many of today’s entrepreneurs, who jump into a startup right after college or drop out, Acton points out.

阿克頓和另一位創始人庫姆經歷了不少曲折，才把WhatsApp發展到了作價190億美元的規模。其一，幫助創辦WhatsApp時，阿克頓已經38歲了。在此之前，他在蘋果（Apple）幹了三年，在雅虎幹了11年多。阿克頓在雅虎結識了WhatsApp首席執行官兼聯合創始人簡o庫姆，並最終成爲WhatsApp公司負責工程設計的副總裁。（阿克頓曾經歷離婚，並育有子女。）阿克頓指出，他與今天的許多創業者不同，後者大多大學畢業後就直接開始創業，甚至輟學創業。

Still, Acton and Koum’s late-blooming strategy worked. With WhatsApp, they developed a dead-simple mobile app that works a lot like traditional text, or SMS messaging, allowing users to send and receive calls, video, and pictures in addition to messages. (“I used to call SMS black and white,” Acton said. “We’re color.”) Because it was free, the app developed a huge following, particularly in Europe and parts of Asia, where traditional texting can be pricey. That’s despite a mobile messaging space crowded with competitors like Line, Viber and MessageMe. “It just effing works,” said Acton, explaining in semi-profane terms WhatApp’s appeal. “We don’t have a lot of gimmickry. We don’t collect messages or do anything with them. We respect our users.”

不過，阿克頓和庫姆大器晚成的戰略行之有效。他們開發的WhatsApp是一款超級簡單的移動應用，原理很像傳統的手機短信，在文本信息外，用戶還能發送和接收呼叫、視頻和圖片。（阿克頓說：“我常說短信是黑白的，而我們的服務則是彩色的。”）因爲不收費，WhatsApp吸引了大量的追捧者，尤其是在傳統短信服務收費較高的歐洲和亞洲，儘管移動通訊領域充斥着Line、Viber以及MessageMe等一種競爭對手。談到WhatsApp 大受歡迎，阿克頓說道:“它就是火了。我們沒有什麼花招，我們也不收集信息或幹那些有的沒的。我們尊重我們的用戶。”

Talks with Zuckerberg about a potential WhatsApp acquisition began heating up in early February, when Zuck – as he is known to tech insiders – presented Acton and Koum with a hard number. “We said, ‘Oh, shit,’ We’ve got to pay attention to this,” Acton said, who recalled a mind-numbing 96-hours straight in conference rooms with a “flotilla” of lawyers as they hammered out a deal.

早在今年二月初，同扎克伯格關於可能收購WhatsApp的談判就開始升溫。扎克伯格向阿克頓和庫姆開出了一個確切的數字——高科技界人士都知道，這是他的一貫做法。阿克頓回憶道：“我們說：‘靠’，我們得好好琢磨琢磨這事。”於是他們同“一大幫”律師一起，在會議室整整煎熬了96個小時，直到他們制定出交易方案。

For now, the thing Acton looks forward to most isn’t working with the employer who once rejected him – or even getting to 600 million WhatsApp users – it’s closing the deal with Facebook. Admitted Acton: “When it closes, it’ll be with a sense of relief.

眼下，阿克頓最期待的，不是與曾拒絕自己的僱主共事，甚至也不是使WhatsApp的用戶數增長到6億，而是與Facebook達成交易。阿克頓坦言：“等到交易達成，我肯定會感到如釋重負。”