SortStack #2523 — 2033-05-06

By price · Order from cheapest to most expensive.

1. A new big-budget video game at launch $70

   Adjusted for inflation, games are cheaper than ever: a Nintendo cartridge in the early Nineties often cost the equivalent of well over a hundred of today's dollars.

2. An iPhone Pro at launch $999

   The components inside an iPhone cost Apple roughly half the sticker price — the rest covers R&D, software, marketing, and famously healthy margins.

3. The Pink Star diamond, sold at auction in Hong Kong $71.2M

   A previous buyer defaulted after bidding $83 million, forcing a re-auction — the 59.6 carat stone took two years just to cut and polish.

4. Instagram, when Facebook bought it $1B

   In 2012 Instagram had 13 employees and zero revenue. The price was widely mocked as insane — it may be the best acquisition in tech history.

5. Constructing the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building $1.5B

   It was renamed at the last minute for the president of Abu Dhabi, whose emirate bailed out Dubai during the 2009 debt crisis — it was to be called Burj Dubai.

6. Activision Blizzard, when Microsoft bought it $68.7B

   The biggest gaming acquisition ever took nearly two years to close as regulators on three continents scrutinized it — the UK initially blocked it outright.

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