Paul Buchheit, Bret Taylor, Jim Norris, Sanjeev Singh
// the model, blind
Evaluating only FriendFeed’s profile at its peak — without knowing the outcome — the model ranked Acquisition gone wrong as the #1 likely cause. That’s exactly how it died.
Key Events Timeline
FOUNDING
FriendFeed founded
CEO CHANGE
Leadership crisis or CEO change
ACQUISITION ATTEMPT
Acqui-hire: FriendFeed ceases operations
Full Analysis
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Documented cause
FriendFeed launched in 2007 aggregating activity from all social networks into a single feed — Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and more. It pioneered the "Like" button (originally called "I Like This") and real-time commenting. Facebook acquired FriendFeed in August 2009 for $47.5M. Facebook adopted the Like button. FriendFeed itself was shut down in April 2015.
Lesson
“Being acquired for your team means your product is collateral — the acquiring company owns your best idea and the roadmap to kill your product.”
Failure anatomy
Collapse type
Acqui-hire
📉 MEDIUM
Hype cycle
peak of inflated expectations
Moat type
Technology
Fatal mistake
Facebook acquired and killed product 6 years after acquisition — Like button concept absorbed into Facebook
FAQ
Did FriendFeed really invent the Like button?
FriendFeed launched an "I Like This" button in October 2007, two years before Facebook adopted "Like" in February 2009. Paul Buchheit, who built FriendFeed, was also the creator of Gmail. Whether Facebook independently developed Like or directly adopted FriendFeed's version is debated, but the timing is unambiguous.