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Facebook Buys WhatsApp for $16 Billion

This article is over 10 years old and may contain outdated information

Facebook pursues continued social networking domination with mobile messaging acquisition.

WhatsApp Logo 310x

Facebook has announced plans to acquire WhatsApp, the multi-platform mobile messaging service, for approximately $16 billion. The purchase will be made with $4 billion in cash, along with $12 billion in Facebook stock. Facebook’s release also states that an additional $3 billion in restricted stock will be given to WhatsApp founders and employees, and these shares will vest over a four-year period.

WhatsApp is one of the most popular cross-platform messaging services around, with roughly 450 million total users (over 300 million of whom use the service every day), and a total message sent/received figure “approaching the entire global telecom SMS volume.” And with over one million new users joining every day, WhatsApp is on pace to hit a billion users within the next 18 months (assuming the new users per day figure doesn’t climb).

If the acquisition fails to go through, WhatsApp will receive $1 billion in cash and another $1 billion in stock from Facebook.

Founded in 2009, WhatsApp was co-founded by a duo of former Yahoo! employees, Brian Acton, and Jan Koum (who serves as CEO). Within three years, WhatsApp was handling ten billion messages per day.

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