The social network announced that mobile messaging company WhatsApp is now bought by Facebook for $19 bn (£11.4 bn). The company would be paying $4bn in cash while $15bn in the shares of Facebook as deal. The founders and employees of the app will be getting $3bn of shares which will be as restricted stock vested over 4 years after the closing of deal. In the 10 year history of Facebook this purchase has been the largest single acquisition.
The real time mobile messaging service WhatsApp has more than 450 million monthly users. Furthermore this app also will have more than 1 million users each day. According to Facebook WhatsApp will continue operating independently and sustain its branch. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook said that very soon around 1 billion of people will be connected to WhatsApp and this margin is really valuable.
He also added that from the very long time he knows Jan Koum, CEO of WhatsApp and is excited about his partnership to open and connect more number of people. WhatsApp is regarded as the vital and important communication network worldwide. Furthermore WhatsApp is widely accepted and used app having higher percentage of people engaging daily than Facebook said by Zuckerberg. Koum who is the former engineer of Yahoo! will also join in the board of director team of Facebook.
Koum is also equally excited and honoured with the partnership with Facebook as they will bring more products to more people in the world. People also believes Facebook makes bold moves to their competitors – after a weekend of negotiation Instagram was brought in $1bn.