Facebook's $1 billion buyout of Instagram was a rapid attempt to land the mobile app developer before it got much bigger, insiders uncovered. Within a day of Instagram's getting a $50 million venture capitalist funding round last Thursday, putting its value at $500 million, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had called Instagram co-creator Kevin Systrom and made his offer known, the New York Times heard. It took just the weekend to resolve differences and finalize the deal for twice the photo app writer's value.
