Whatsapp sold to Facebook

If you thought paying $1 billion for Instagram was insane, then this will blow your freakin' mind: Facebook introduced late Wednesday that it has obtained messaging app WhatsApp for $19 billion. Yes, that's billion, with a "b." We'll offer you a moment to select your jaw off the floor.

Whatsapp Sold To Facebook



Facebook Buys Whatsapp


The WhatsApp deal includes some $4 billion in cash money, as well as one more $12 billion worth of Facebook stock up front-- that equates to $16 billion, in case you don't have a calculator in front of you. WhatsApp's owners as well as workers will certainly additionally obtain one more $3 billion in Facebook shares over the next four years, bringing the overall cost of the purchase to $19 billion. The deal has actually been confirmed in documents submitted with the U.S. Securities and also Exchange Compensation.

Facebook has actually agreed to pay WhatsApp $1 billion in money and also to issue $1 billion in Facebook supply as a breakup cost, if the SEC does not accept the deal.

A glimpse at the numbers shows why Facebook invested billions on a 5-year-old message messaging choice. In a news release, Facebook disclosed that WhatsApp has some 450 million active regular monthly customers, 70 percent of whom make use of the messaging service daily. At that price, claims Facebook, the variety of WhatsApp messages approaches the overall variety of SMS text sent out throughout the whole globe on a typical day.

" WhatsApp gets on a path to link 1 billion individuals. The solutions that get to that turning point are all incredibly useful," Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook owner and also Chief Executive Officer, said in a declaration.

In a blog post, WhatsApp founder as well as Chief Executive Officer Jan Koum, that will certainly join Facebook's board of directors, stated that the app "will stay self-governing and also run individually" of Facebook, which "absolutely nothing" will certainly change for individuals. Koum also claimed that the bargain "will certainly offer WhatsApp the flexibility to grow as well as increase," while giving him, co-founder Brian Acton, and the rest of the What' sApp team "more time to focus on developing a communications service that's as quick, budget friendly and personal as possible."

WhatsApp does not offer promotions to customers. Rather, the application bills a $1 yearly fee after a year of free service. Koum says the application will certainly remain ad-free under Facebook's umbrella.

Jim Goetz of Sequoia Capitol, the investment company that provided WhatsApp with $8 million in financing-- the only financing the company got, according to Crunchbase-- sought to explain the $19 billion sum fetched by WhatsApp in a post. He associates the staggering acquisition total up to the application's blowing up active userbase, the business's "fabulous" team of simply 32 engineers, Koum's and also Acton's commitment to "constructing a pure messaging experience," as well as the truth that WhatsApp invested specifically $0 on advertising.

" Those less familiar with WhatsApp as well as its wonderful item will certainly marvel at just how a young business could be so useful," created Goetz. "Most of those individuals will certainly remain in the UNITED STATE due to the fact that there's no other home grown technology company that's so extensively enjoyed overseas therefore under appreciated in your home. ... Today PayPal and also YouTube are both household names worldwide. Tomorrow the very same will certainly apply for WhatsApp."

Quickly after Facebook announced the offer, CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed in a message on his Facebook Page that WhatsApp will help meet his business's "goal ... to make the globe more open as well as linked."

" WhatsApp will certainly complement our existing chat and also messaging solutions to provide brand-new tools for our area," Zuckerberg wrote. "Facebook Carrier is commonly used for talking with your Facebook buddies, as well as WhatsApp for interacting with all of your contacts as well as small teams of people."

Zuckerberg included that the WhatsApp group "had every option on the planet, so I'm delighted that they selected to deal with us." Facebook has apparently been checking into buying WhatsApp since 2012, while Google was claimed to have actually supplied to acquire the firm for $1 billion in April of last year-- a report that WhatsApp's head of organisation growth Neeraj Aroratold later on refuted. Not that $1 billion would certainly have been enough, anyhow.