Facebook Finalizes WhatsApp Acquisition

Facebook today closed its acquisition of WhatsApp. Announced earlier this year, is valued at $19 billion. U.S. regulators approved the proposal in April, but it did not receive approval from the European Commission until last week. 

As part of the deal, WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum joined Facebook's board of directors who will be granted $1.9 billion in stock if he remains with the company for four years. 

WhatsApp is a cross-platform messaging service that many use an alternative to traditional, carrier-based SMS services.


Source: WhatsApp

Facebook Purchases WhatsApp For $19B

Facebook is purchasing messaging giant WhatsApp for $16 billion in cash and stock, according to a regulatory filing. The deal is being cut for $12 billion in Facebook shares, $4 billion in cash and an additional $3 billion in RSUs for employee retention.

A termination fee is attached to the deal that would cost Facebook $1 billion in cash and $1 billion in shares if the deal fails to pass regulatory muster.

Facebook has posted on its blog, detailing the reasoning behind the acquisition, as well. The post notes that WhatsApp will continue to operate independently and retain its brand. In addition, WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum will join Facebook’s board.

Facebook notes that WhatsApp has over 450 million MAUs, with 70 percent of those active each day. In a staggering comparison, Facebook also notes that the messaging volume of WhatsApp approaches the SMS volume of the entire global telecom industry and that it’s adding 1 million users a day.

Google Reportedly Looking To Purchase WhatsApp

According to a new report, Google is in talks with the makers of WhatsApp to acquire the popular messing app for as much as $1 billion.

Digital Trends is reporting that it has spoken with a source with inside information on the talks currently going on between Google and WhatsApp. Apparently the conversations began four to five weeks ago, but have now hit a wall as the folks behind the messaging service are “playing hardball” and pushing for an acquisition price in the neighborhood of $1 billion.

WhatsApp has been the topic of acquisition rumors before such as in Dec. 2012 when Facebook had supposedly approached the company.

With a lot of talk recently about Google working on a new product called Babble that would unify messaging across all platforms, it isn’t too surprising it might want to acquire one of the biggest providers out there. WhatsApp has seen traffic as high as 18 billion messages in one day, so it obviously knows how to handle a ton of traffic.

At this time there is only this one lone report to go on, but the logic is definitely there that an acquisition of WhatsApp, something that has been speculated on endlessly, may truly be in discussions.