Deal worth $16bn will give social-networking firm access to 450 million people who use the cross-platform mobile app.
Facebook, the world’s biggest social-networking company, says it is buying the mobile messaging service WhatsApp in a deal worth $16bn.
The purchase, announced on Wednesday, will leave WhatsApp with its own independent board.
WhatsApp is a cross-platform mobile app which allows users to exchange messages without having to pay telecom charges.
It is Facebook’s biggest acquisition and comes less than two years after Mark Zuckerberg’s firm raised $16bn in the richest technology-sector public stock offering. The purchase includes $12bn in Facebook shares and $4bn cash. It calls for an additional $3bn in restricted stock units to be granted to WhatsApp
founders and employees that will vest over four years.
“The acquisition supports Facebook and WhatsApp’s shared mission to bring more connectivity and utility to the world by delivering core Internet services efficiently and affordably,” Facebook said in a statement.
The WhasApp deal translates to roughly nine percent of Facebook’s market value and is bigger than any acquisition made by Google, Apple or Microsoft.
Google’s biggest deal, Motorola Mobility, stood at $12.5bn, while Microsoft’s largest was Skype – which allows users to make voice and video calls over the internet – at $8.5bn. Apple, meanwhile, has not done a deal above $1bn.
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