At Le Web 10, everyone saw the awkward expression on Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley‘s face when host Loic Le Meur asked him just how large the acquisition offer was that the company recently turned down.
Le Meur guessed around $140 million (whether that offer came from Facebook, Yahoo or another company wasn’t really mentioned, but they are the likely bidders and the topic of the on-stage conversation was Facebook when the question dropped).
Crowley didn’t deny it, and then went on to acknowledge that number is “ballpark”.
Which means Foursquare turned down a $140 million-ish offer, probably from Facebook, when they’d only raised about $1.35 million in seed funding – they went on to raise $20 million more after the buyout talks died down. Visionary, or foolish? Brave, or bubble?
For what it’s worth: Foursquare just passed 5 million users, and is seeing 2 million check-ins and 25,000 new users on a daily basis.
Foursquare is a geographical location based social network that incorporates gaming elements. Users share their location with friends by “checking in” via a smartphone app or by text message. Points are awarded for checking in at various venues. Users can connect their Foursquare accounts to their Twitter and Facebook accounts, which can update when a check in is registered. By checking in a certain number of times, or in different locations, users can collect virtual badges. In addition, users...
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