Definitely, it’s a crazy world, after seeing that Facebook will pay $19 billion for buying WhatsApp. In the end it seems that the popular WhatsApp really had a price, it was just necessary to increase and increase to find it.
The purchase price is cut in the following way:
- $4 billion in cash.
- $12 billion in Facebook shares. Who cares?, it’s just paper in the end.
- $3 billion in restricted stock units with a retention plan for WhatsApp’s founders and employees for four years.
After the acquisition of Instagram for $1 billion, this new purchase puts the new limits now, and it shows how important it is for a giant like Facebook to expand its power and control. Above all, to try to confront Google, who is in my opinion his real main competitor.
With this purchase one of its main investors, Sequoia, will multiply its investment by 200. A company that only has 32 engineers, with a ratio of 1 engineer to 14 million users. Processing 50 billion messages a day.
Further information and interesting news about this deal:
- Facebook Buying WhatsApp For $19B, Will Keep The Messaging Service Independent. TechCrunch
- Four Numbers That Explain Why Facebook Acquired WhatsApp. Sequoia Capital
- Zuck Says Ads Aren’t The Way To Monetize Messaging, WhatsApp Will Prioritize Growth Not Subscriptions. TechCrunch
The images are from TechCrunch articles.
Original post in Spanish by David Carrero Fernández-Baíllo and translation by Dolores María Carrero Fernández-Baíllo.