Facebook has completed its acquisition of the mobile messaging service
WhatsApp for almost $22 billion, up from the original $19 billion when
the cash-and-stock deal was struck early this year thanks in part to the
rising price of Facebook shares.
Facebook named WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum to its board on Monday Oct 06,2014. WhatsApp is by far the largest acquisition for the Menlo Park, California company, and bigger than any deals made by Google, Microsoft or Apple
WhatsApp lets users chat with their phone contacts, both one-on-one and
in groups. It also allows people to send texts, photos, videos and voice
recordings over the Internet and lets them text or call people overseas
without heavy charges. Free to use for the first year and costing $1
per year after that, the service has no advertising.
WhatsApp has been growing rapidly, especially in developing countries
like Brazil, India, Mexico and Russia, and now has more than 500 million
users.
Facebook, which has its own mobile messaging app called Messenger, plans to keep WhatsApp as a separate service.
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