The Verge - Facebook's Instagram acquisition: the billion-dollar story

Instagram agreed to sell to Twitter for $525 million before choosing Facebook, says NYT

2012-12-17T00:47:37Z

The New York Times is reporting that Twitter had a deal in place to buy Instagram for $525 million back in March — before the photo-sharing service's CEO Kevin Systrom called the whole thing off. We've heard about Twitter's interest in Instagram before, but the revelation is particularly noteworthy given the recent spat between the two companies, not to mention Systrom's claims to California regulators that Facebook's successful $1 billion bid was the only one received.

According to the Times, Systrom and co-founder Mike Krieger had verbally agreed to sell to Twitter before finally deciding to "remain independent" on March 20th. Three weeks later, the Facebook acquisition was announced, leaving the Times' sources shocked that Twitter...

Facebook confirms it will 'monetize' Instagram

2012-12-12T19:20:21Z

Since Facebook acquired Instagram earlier this year, people have wondered how the service might be changing. We're still not sure, but Facebook VP of Global Marketing Solutions Carolyn Everson has confirmed that monetization is coming in some form. Talking with Business Insider, Everson avoided the question of whether ads would start appearing on the photo sharing service, but she said that "eventually we'll figure out a way to monetize Instagram." Shortly after, she reiterated that the Instagram team was still relatively small and fairly new, but maintained that it would eventually start generating funds for Facebook. "There are many brands that use Instagram right now to try to get a feel for how to engage with their followers. We will...

Facebook's 'billion dollar' Instagram acquisition to actually cost $715 million

2012-10-25T03:11:46Z

After all the dust has settled, Facebook’s much-hyped "billion dollar" acquisition of photo sharing service Instagram is actually costing the company considerably less — $715 million, to be more precise. As reported by The Next Web, the value of the deal has fallen significantly thanks to Facebook's falling share price. The results were made public in the company's quarterly report; its second since its May IPO.

So far, Facebook has paid $521 million in cash and stock

So far, Facebook has already shelled out $521 million — $300 million in cash and the remainder in Class B common stock, which has ten times the voting power of Class A shares but can’t be publicly traded. The company also issued approximately 11 million unvested...

Facebook's Instagram purchase finally complete, over 5 billion photos shared to date

2012-09-06T15:26:37Z

It's been a long time coming, but Facebook's purchase of Instagram is finally a done deal — both companies just announced the finalized partnership on their respective blogs. Additionally, Instagram revealed that users have now shared over five billion photos. This finalized purchase comes a few weeks after the FTC closed its investigation into the deal, and less than a week since the state of California finished a "fairness hearing" on the proposed deal.

Due to the fact that Facebook's stock has dropped since the deal was originally announced, the value of the purchase is below the $1 billion that was originally reported — we don't know the final purchase price yet, but last week it was estimated to be about $750 million. This caps...

Facebook's stock transfer to Instagram cleared by the state of California

2012-08-29T19:59:40Z

Despite the fact that the FCC approved Facebook's purchase of Instagram last week, the state of California had one more final hearing on the matter — a "fairness hearing" meant to approve the transfer of Facebook stock as part of the whole deal. The hearing took place today, and the Wall Street Journal reports that California's Department of Corporations found that the deal was "fair, just, and equitable," paving the way for the sale to finally be complete. Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom attended the hearing and answered questions regarding the fact that Instagram's purchase price had dropped from $1 billion to $750 million because of Facebook's underperforming stock. In response, Systrom said, "I've been taught throughout my life to...

FTC closes Facebook / Instagram investigation, deal may 'proceed as proposed'

2012-08-22T21:54:58Z

Facebook's proposed purchase of Instagram has been cleared by the FTC, paving the way for the deal to close nearly five months after the initial announcement. This news comes a little over a week after the UK's Office of Fair Trading gave similar approval to the deal. The FTC passed the deal unanimously in a five-to-zero vote, saying that "the deal may now proceed as proposed." As Facebook has gone public since the purchase was first announced, the value of the deal is actually a good bit lower than the original estimated purchase price of $1 billion — the deal is for $300 million in cash, plus 22,999,412 shares of Facebook common stock. As of today, the whole deal is valued at $747.1 million.

There's no word on when exactly this all...

Facebook's purchase of Instagram cleared by UK watchdog

2012-08-14T12:37:12Z

The UK's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has halted its probe into Facebook's $1 billion purchase of Instagram. OFT began to look into the purchase last month over fears that it would give Facebook an unfair advantage in the photo-sharing market. If it had found sufficient evidence it would have referred the case the UK's competition commission which could have potentially taken steps to block the takeover.

In an emailed statement, OFT says that it "has decided, on the information currently available to it, not to refer the following merger to the Competition Commission under the provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002." The probe mirrored that of the FTC, whose investigation is still ongoing.

FTC investigating Facebook / Instagram deal, says Financial Times

2012-05-10T20:30:17Z

The Facebook buyout of Instagram may not happen as soon as planned. According to the Financial Times, "two people familiar with the matter" say the US Federal Trade Commission has launched an investigation of the deal and is currently collecting information from Facebook's competitors. That doesn't necessarily mean it's going to find any problems, and it's not unusual for the FTC to investigate deals greater than $68.2 million under current antitrust laws; the deal is still expected to be approved.

An FTC probe, however, means that Facebook probably won't be able to start using Instagram as quickly as it would like. Facebook has previously said it expects the deal to close in the second quarter, but an investigation could take six or...