But they have taken in more capital in the two years which means they would have been better off selling. They have taken $475m in VC since then, vastly diluting their internal holdings. They have taken all this cash and are no more valuable but many of the share holders are invested at a higher valuation which means they are unwilling to sell.
They took in a lot of that at a much higher valuation -- $15 billion. So even at a $2 billion pre-money valuation, at par they're ahead of where they'd be if they'd sold for $1.6 billion two years ago. And that despite a ~40% haircut to all kinds of assets in the meantime.
(Since the rumored YHOO $1.6B offer: GOOG -21%, MSFT -35%, YHOO -45% -- while Facebook is +15% or more, even with the dilution.)
Sure, they'd prefer $4B or $6B, but anyone who portrays a $2B term sheet now as creating regret they didn't combine with Yahoo (ha!) is missing the larger context.
