Zucky not so Lucky

If Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t already stressed out enough with the issues pertaining to the recent IPO fiasco, as well as the escalating patent wars between Facebook and Yahoo, then Steve Bezos has just added the cherry. Amazon stated today that they had extended their patent portfolio to include ‘digital gift giving’, a service that allows Amazon users to send digital gifts (e.g. downloadable books, music for the Kindle Fire). Some of the claims of this issued patent include allowing the gift-giver to forego paying for the digital ‘goody’ until the user has accepted it. Sounds like a pretty broad set of claims in an age where an issued patent is becoming increasingly hard to come by.

Karma Science, a service founded less than a year ago and funded by Kleiner Perkins, one of the largest and most established venture capital firms in the world (other investments include Zynga, Google, AOL….and Amazon), is a social gifting site that runs on mobile devices. Karma was recently acquired by Facebook, on the day of the social networks not-so-mammoth public offering, for $80 million. Now, less than two weeks after the multi-million dollar acquisition, it seems like Facebook may be headed for further patent litigation – though not with a struggling company (i.e. Yahoo), but with Amazon (AMZN has twice as much cash on hand than YHOO). It is still a bit early to tell whether or not the service that Karma provides will indeed infringe upon Amazon’s newly issued patent, though this is just another setback for the social networking site which has seen nearly a 30% drop in value since going public.

Will Zuckerberg stand-up to Amazon and fight for his newly acquired company, Karma? Or will actual ‘karma’ bite the young and inexperienced CEO in the ass and force him to license the ‘digital gift giving’ service from Amazon? Furthermore, if Amazon did indeed win the potential ensuing patent battle, would Bezos license the technology to Facebook, or would he keep this golden-goose for himself, thus creating somewhat of a modern day monopoly?

I’m not sure anything, especially not a digitalized e-commerce company (not even Amazon) will be able to replace that “magical” feeling one gets when he or she goes to Macy’s in New York City in mid-December – though, why even make the trek to West 34th when you can do all your shopping in the comfort of your own bed (#obesity).

Facebook may not be in as much trouble as Macy’s, but they are starting to feel the heat of larger, more well-established companies, and Zuckerberg may be beginning to realize that the transition from a mere social-networking site (which, by the way was worth $100 BILLION at its peak), to a possible mobile phone provider and even an e-commerce .com, may turn out to be a much more tedious journey than he had originally anticipated.

Should investors keep their faith in Zuckerberg, the original mastermind behind Facebook, or may it be a good idea to nip the problem in the bud (inexperience), and find someone who is better fit to run the company. The only way to achieve the latter would be to actually convince Zucky to step down (Zuckerberg may only own 28% of the company, but in actuality he owns over 57% of the voting rights).

Either way, Facebook needs to come up with a concrete plan for the future, and creative pivoting options in the case that they run into any more problems like the ones that have arisen in the recent past. Let’s hope Zucky isn’t too over his head.

-OptiLaunch Team