Facebook has entered into an agreement to purchase WhatsApp, the massively popular messaging client, for $16 billion in cash and stock. A document filed with the SEC today confirms the huge purchase. As was the case with Instagram, the company says WhatsApp will continue to operate independently after the acquisition — separate from Facebook Messenger — but claims the deal "accelerates Facebook’s ability to bring connectivity and utility to the world." Facebook is also throwing in an extra $3 billion in restricted stock units that will go to WhatsApp’s employees; those will vest over a period of four years after the acquisition is finalized.
In a press release announcing the monumental buyout, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, "WhatsApp is on a path to connect 1 billion people. The services that reach that milestone are all incredibly valuable." He also shared news of the deal on his personal Facebook page, saying, "WhatsApp will complement our existing chat and messaging services to provide new tools for our community." Over 450 million people use WhatsApp each month, according to statistics in the press release, with 70 percent of those users active on a given day. WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum will join Facebook’s board of directors as part of the deal, but his team will remain stationed in Mountain View, California.
"Doing this will give WhatsApp the flexibility to grow and expand, while giving me, Brian, and the rest of our team more time to focus on building a communications service that’s as fast, affordable and personal as possible," he said in a blog post. According to Koum, users don't need to worry about ads "interrupting your communication." "There would have been no partnership between our two companies if we had to compromise on the core principles that will always define our company, our vision and our product," he said.
Update: In a call with investors following the deal, Zuckerberg said he proposed the purchase to Koum on Sunday, February 9th, with the two agreeing on a price a few days later. Zuckerberg also went into more detail on why Facebook will hang on to its existing chat services, which he views as something people use to send one another messages asynchronously instead of in real-time. "We think that those are two different use cases, and that the world needed both," he said.
Analysts also asked Koum and Zuckerberg whether the deal meant that ads were coming to WhatsApp. Koum responded to by saying the two companies were more focused on growing how many people were using the app over how money will be made off it.
Comments
Holy shit.
By BarkerWoofer on 02.19.14 5:09pm
WTF?!
By wingzero0 on 02.19.14 5:10pm
Could actually be kind of nice. I’m Dutch (living in the US), and almost everyone in the Netherlands (that I know at least) uses WhatsApp instead of texts. Having that become cross-compatible with Facebook Messenger (or having the users moved over to Messenger) would be great for having everything in one place.
By challengeaccepted on 02.19.14 5:21pm
Oops missed that sentence in the article (hadn’t refreshed) ignore what I said.
By challengeaccepted on 02.19.14 5:27pm
I still hope, as you hint at, that whatsapp stays independent, but perhaps that facebook messenger and whatsapp learn to recognize each other and play nice together.
By RagingTyrant on 02.19.14 5:44pm
Maybe this will somehow mean I will be able to get notifications reliably with Facebook messenger, which doesn’t seem to work well on any of the devices that I own. I eventually just told people thatt ‘if you need to reach me and its important, just send me an SMS message, because if you do it on Facebook, there’s only about a 1 out of 5 chance I’ll receive the notification’.
By Gideon Waxfarb on 02.19.14 5:55pm
I tell people to do the exact opposite. I have never encountered the issues you described.
I can not believe that people are still using the obsolete sms-system.
By Tor Berglund on 02.19.14 6:08pm
I have a Nexus 4, a Nexus 7, and the Metro Facebook app for Windows 8.1. I get notifications for Facebook messages about 20% of the time on the Nexus 4, about 5% of the time on Windows 8.1, and almost never on the Nexus 7. I have Facebook Messenger installed on the Android devices.
For anyone reading this… I will send $100 to the Paypal account of your choice if you can tell me what I need to do to get Facebook messages reliably. (I’m serious!) I even went so far as to try the infamous ‘Blackberry hack’, have installed 3rd party apps on Android that promise to deliver Facebook notifications… NOTHING has worked. I’m at my wit’s end.
By Gideon Waxfarb on 02.19.14 6:22pm
Buy an iPhone.
By Cloudgazer on 02.19.14 6:42pm
By Astromanaught on 02.19.14 8:04pm
haha,you make the point
By jwsunlight on 02.19.14 9:00pm
“That’s like having one bad date with a girl and saying ‘I better go gay’.”
By wackyanimation on 02.19.14 9:48pm
No, it’s like he asked how to get regular blowjobs without having to even buy a girl dinner and then saying ‘go gay’.
By Cloudgazer on 02.20.14 3:50am
Facebook Messenger works perfectly for me on all of my devices.
By pwnasaurus on 02.19.14 6:59pm
https://www.facebook.com/help/183978825053428
or just turn up your ring tone. I’m with Tor; using SMS is very unreliable. I actually convinced my people to go with Hangouts these days.
P.S. I’m baffled why anyone would want to buy WhatsApp — it’s hella ugly and has no PC or web client. If Zuckerberg thinks people don’t use FB chat to communicate in real time he’s out of touch with his own product by a few years.
By imBroobs on 02.19.14 7:02pm
See graph in article. One tech company buys another tech company based on worth not only on how it looks. Whatsapp is extremely popular in many parts of the world. I begrudgingly use it. I don´t have a Facebook account, I wonder if I would be forced to have one now.. LOL
By ov103 on 02.19.14 7:40pm
Same situation as you. I am happy for whatsapp features to be in Facebook but not the other way around. Please no Facebook integration into whatsapp.
By Bad Cowz on 02.19.14 7:45pm
For Android, wipe app data on fb messenger and relogin.
By prometheus on 02.19.14 8:50pm
Go to the app setting. Change your refresh interval
By Wisnu Wicaksono on 02.19.14 8:56pm
Go to application manager in settings and wipe cache and data then login again. I had this problem and this solved it.
By Baddudevsninja on 02.20.14 7:34am
It’s great news because more people will get away from sms. I try to convince my non-techy friends to download whatsapp and they just don’t get it. Maybe a 16b acquisition will convince them.
By ussefian on 02.19.14 5:29pm
I love it because I’m on iOS in the USA and my “mobile-enabled” family members in the UK are all on Android. Makes texting them free (just like for all my iMessage people in the US.
By Mark C. Smith on 02.19.14 5:33pm
Hangouts are free also – so you could have used that?
By Spock123 on 02.19.14 7:40pm
It’s hard getting people to stick with What’s App. It would be near impossible for them to think of Hangouts.
By Mark7A on 02.19.14 8:17pm
not everybody wants a G+ profile.
By huggyb on 02.19.14 9:35pm