Facebook to buy Whatsapp for $19 billion.

[Jodell88]

Facebook has said it will buy messaging app WhatsApp for $19bn - the social networking giant's biggest purchase to date.

WhatsApp is popular with young people looking to avoid text messaging charges and has been cited as a rival to BlackBerry Messenger.

WhatsApp has over 450 million users.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-26266689

 

[poofyhairguy]

Woah.

 

[jagec]

wat

 

[Printer Bandit]

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's cofounder and CEO, said in a statement. "I've known Jan [Koum, WhatsApp cofounder] for a long time and I'm excited to partner with him and his team to make the world more open and connected."

Facebook has agreed to pay $12 billion in stock and $4 billion in cash for the company. Facebook has also agreed to pay an additional $3 billion in restricted stock units to WhatsApp's founders and employees as part of the deal, which would bring the total deal price to about $19 billion.

http://mashable.com/2014/02/19/facebook-whatsapp/

 

[Doppel]

Never heard of it.

EDIT: Oh, it's like iMessage for poor people who use Androids hee hee

Sounds like it's worth $19B for sure. Creating an app like that would take at least a few weeks, so yeah well priced ugh

 

[ViviTheMage]

why, I didn't think anyone actually used it...

 

[BurnItDwn]

I've been using whatsapp because it's free, ad free, and allows em to leave short voice messages as well as txt messages ..

but ... if It gets bought out by facebook, I will get rid of it since they will bloat it and shitify it.

 

[yhelothar]

That simple little messenger app is worth 700% of AMD and about 200% of NVIDIA. 😵

 

[pcslookout]

Why is virtual data worth so much

 

[Printer Bandit]

computer science majors graduating now must have hard ons.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Why is virtual data worth so much

userbase, eyes

 

[KeithTalent]

Never used it, I always thought it was iPhone only and that you had to pay for it, which all seems to be incorrect.

KT

 

[jagec]

Why is virtual data worth so much

It's not. We're in tech bubble 2.0, which will pop eventually.

 

[cronos]

Never used it, I always thought it was iPhone only and that you had to pay for it, which all seems to be incorrect.

Whatsapp actually has clients for pretty much every mobile OS under the sun, including Symbian (remember them?).

 

[sotired]

I used Whatsapp to communicate with overseas friends, until everyone moved to Line. I don't see any upside. Of course this is all anecdotal.

 

[Hugo Drax]

That simple little messenger app is worth 700% of what AMD is worth and about 200% of NVIDIA. 😵

The reason for overpaying for these companies is so that the top brass,ceo could give themselves special bonuses for completing these acquisitions. At the expense of Common shareholders.

The more they overpay the bigger the bonuses.

 

[skim milk]

Facebook just throwing money around. These acquisitions are getting larger and larger.

 

[BoberFett]

I use WhatsApp, and it's a handy app, but I fail to see what's worth $19B.

 

[theeedude]

It's telling that with all their talent, FB cannot do better with $19B than to buy an outside company.

 

[yuchai]

I used Whatsapp to communicate with overseas friends, until everyone moved to Line. I don't see any upside. Of course this is all anecdotal.

There's also WeChat, which I think is strong in Asia.

 

[jagec]

Whatsapp actually has clients for pretty much every mobile OS under the sun, including Symbian (remember them?).

They make those high-end vibrators, right?

 

[Bateluer]

It's telling that with all their talent, FB cannot do better with $19B than to buy an outside company.

Its the 450 million users they want.

 

[mmntech]

It's telling that with all their talent, FB cannot do better with $19B than to buy an outside company.

Simple business. It's easier to buy a company that already has an established user base and brand familiarity. Which is why Instagram is still Instagram, and not Facebook Photos. Though I agree there's no frigging way this app is worth $19 billion. Even Facebook itself isn't worth that much in assets so I don't know where they got the money from.

I think Facebook's market has been starting to contract. They still have a lot of active users, but it's getting used less frequently and demographics are shifting to older adults. That's not the market they want. So they're buying up these companies in an attempt to stay relevant, and not turn into MySpace and Friendster.

 

[GWestphal]

8.5 billion for jan koum

 

[Miramonti]

Z and fb leaders are simply throwing around fake money, ie investor money collatoralized by their stock price. Not only is Whatsapp not woth 19b, but neither is fb.