19 Feb 2014

Facebook Buys WhatsApp for $16 Billion

In major tech news today, Facebook went ahead and purchased WhatsApp for $16 billion ($12 billion in stock / $4 billion in cash) What. I’ve never used the app, myself, but from what I’ve heard from my coworkers – it seems to be an app that people absolutely love. It breaks down the barriers of texting internationally and simply makes it easier to communicate with those abroad.

WhatsApp currently has 450 million monthly active users. Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly said on the Feb. 19 conference call that he believes WhatsApp will quickly grow to 1 billion monthly active users.

When the acquisition was announced, it was reported that WhatsApp currently had 32 engineers on their team and altogether somewhere around 50 that will be joining Facebook shortly. I can’t even fathom that amount of money. Facebook is incredibly powerful and the string of news that is trailing them right now is exciting to hear.

[Source]

Posted on February 19, in Design