Facebook To Buy WhatsApp Messaging Service
Facebook has moved aggressively in recent years to catch up with the global shift towards mobile from desktop computing. It paid $1 billion to acquire Instagram in 2012. It tried, and failed, to buy Snapchat for $3 billion in 2013. Now Facebook announced it was acquiring WhatsApp, a world leader in mobile messaging over the internet with more than 450 million users, for $19 billion in stock and cash.
In a statement released late on Wednesday, Facebook said it is buying Mountain View, California-based WhatsApp for $4 billion in cash and $12 billion worth of Facebook shares. As part of the acquisition, WhatsApp founders and employees will get another $3 billion in Facebook stock that they can cash in after four years. WhatsApp will continue to co-exist as an autonomous company, Zuckerberg told investors in a conference call, adding the Facebook messaging service Messenger was not a rival.
WhatsApp History: This wildly popular app, which is free in the first year, is among many messaging services that enable smartphone users to go around their cellular texting plans that come with costs and caps. WhatsApp had reached 450m users much faster than any other web service (see chart). It has also made itself addictive: 72% of its users are active on it every day. And the viral nature of its appeal means it has achieved all this without spending a penny on marketing.
