I can't help but think flickr (pro member here) missed the "social boat". Yahoo acquired them for $35 million. Instagram was $1 billion. If they had jumped onto sharing photos on twitter/facebook at the right time, facebook might not have ever even IPOed.
Instagram $1BB is an once in a lifetime situation brought on by the urgency of a company looking to block out competition and having the money.
Flickr isn't the same product as Instagram.
The real question is should Flickr change into an Instagram-like product or should Flickr stay as a photography community/product and can that still be profitable.
I don't know, but SmugMug, Behance, 500px etc are doing well. But the photo pie is getting bigger while Flickr's slice isn't necessarily growing at the same pace. This is a tough decision for executive management to double down, hold, or fold.
