Instagram May Be First In A Line Of Facebook Purchases

After making a blockbuster purchase of the number one and rising app hit Instagram this month for a whopping one billion dollars, Facebook board members are now being asked what the company plans on picking up next. Facebook is currently working with at least $4 billion MORE in cash right this minute as SF Gate reminds us, with a couple more billion on the way thanks to their $5 billion IPO announced months ago. Will Facebook start picking up 3rd party apps and services left and right now that they've perhaps opened the flood gates with Instagram?

More than likely this dropping of a chunk of Facebook's cash for spending is just the first in a line of similar purchases – but they're probably not going to happen one after another in quick fashion. Instead what we'll likely see here is other big groups like Microsoft and Google thinking about making similar purchases – then not going through with them because Facebook could and probably would outbid them. Then there's Apple – who have more money than some small countries – who could also step in.

Then again Apple is a hardware/software company and haven't had much luck in getting into the social networking world – but then there's Siri. Having picked up Siri for the iPhone 4S exclusively, Apple's purchase is in stark contrast to what we've heard thus far from Facebook and Instagram on what will happen with the latter now that they're owned by Facebook: few to no changes. Facebook is in a good position right this minute to keep up with the other titans of this industry in the up and coming app game: stay tuned!