So the big news is that Facebook acquired Instagram for a cool $1 billion dollars (I can't even type that without thinking about Dr. Evil). A billion dollars is a lot. It's big. To put it in context here is how it stacks up with other photo acquisitions over the years.

I mean it is big. And it is big because the future of social is mobile and the essence of Facebook is sharing pictures. Regardless of the price I can see why they did the deal.

Insta was becoming a threat to Facebook. I first noticed this during a trip to my nieces Bat Matzvah two months ago. Insta was becoming the social network of choice among the 13 year old crowd. My 12 year old picked it up. My 13 year old declared "Facebook is boring." 

And it was moving up the age stream real fast. Abby, my wife of a certain age, was using Insta. It is actually the first social network that she ever actively used. Insta moved her beyond the necessity of LinkedIn and her voyeurism on Facebook to actually engaging and posting on a social network. Upon learning about the deal via a Facebook post by me she actually made a rare Facebook comment "Say it isn't true! They'll ruin it."

I don't know if they will ruin it or not. I hope not, as Insta is one of my two favorite social networks at the moment (the other being Foursquare).

I do know this. A billion is a big. I hope Facebook makes it work for itself and for the Insta users.