Facebook announced the purchase of WhatsApp, the mobile messaging service in a $19 billion deal, the biggest acquisition of Facebook till date. As we revealed earlier in the day, the transaction involves $12 billion in stock and $4 billion in cash and an additional $3 billion in restricted stock units that vests over next four years.
Facebook, in its announcement, claimed “The acquisition supports Facebook and WhatsApp’s shared mission to bring more connectivity and utility to the world by delivering core internet services efficiently and affordably. The combination will help accelerate growth and user engagement across both companies.”
“WhatsApp is on a path to connect 1 billion people. The services that reach that milestone are all incredibly valuable,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. “I’ve known Jan for a long time and I’m excited to partner with him and his team to make the world more open and connected.”
Zuckerberg, in an investor call, also noted that WhatsApp’s user growth in the first five years far exceeds the rates experienced by Facebook, Twitter or other well-known social-media companies.
WhatsApp messaging service has more than 450 million monthly users and around 70 percent of them are active every day. The company claims that more than 1 million new users are registering a day.
“WhatsApp’s extremely high user engagement and rapid growth are driven by the simple, powerful and instantaneous messaging capabilities we provide. We’re excited and honored to partner with Mark and Facebook as we continue to bring our product to more people around the world,” said Cofounder and CEO Jan Koum.
Facebook’s successful bid for WhatsApp comes after Google reportedly made a $1bn offer for the service last year.
Microsoft partnership with Facebook and Microsoft partnership with Nokia resulted in my nokia lumia with Wp8 Os using Bing as search engine… Microsoft wants to recapture its glory days from Google.. everything seems good… But i would like to see the world dominated by Open source… Where are they??