>that company is successful in spite of itself

That's a pretty strong opinion. Some would argue that FB is successful because of stuff like that.

A bit of a sidenote, but after all, I remember how badly Zuck was clowned everywhere (including by FB shareholders and people here on HN) immediately after the purchase of Instagram and WhatsApp. People were saying that FB is dying and Zuck is trying to buy companies that are hyped but irrelevant to the core business out of desperation. These days, it is a pretty universal sentiment that those acquisitions were some of the smartest purchase decisions he could have made at the time.