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

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

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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 Class B shares to Instagram stockholders, which are expected to be worth a total of $194 million as they vest over the next three years.

On Facebook’s ledger, Instagram consists of $86 million in net assets and $435 million in goodwill, or other, intangible assets. The quarterly report also mentions that during the nine months ending September 30th, Facebook made another $87 million in acquisitions, but they weren’t broken out individually. Companies aren’t the only thing it’s been acquiring, either. Facebook shelled out $633 million for patents and other intellectual property during the same nine month period, the largest of which by far is its $550 million patent acquisition and licensing deal with Microsoft.