Facebook was rumored to acquire mobile messaging app WhatsApp back in December, and today the social network confirmed the news.
The deal is worth $16 billion, with $12 billion in stock and $4 billion in cash.
This is Facebook’s biggest acquisition to date, and here’s what the messaging service had to say:
“Today we are announcing a partnership with Facebook that will allow us to continue on that simple mission. 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.”
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also broke the news on his personal Facebook profile, and says WhatsApp will help its mission “to make the world more open and connected.”
Zuckerberg makes it clear that WhatsApp will continue to operate independently, saying “the product roadmap will remain unchanged.”
According to the latest data, the messaging service has over 450 million monthly active users, and over 320 million daily active users.
Back in November, a report claimed that WhatsApp beat Facebook as the top social messaging app.
With the two forces now combined, we’ll start to see how Facebook implements the service, and what its future plans are.
Update: We originally reported the deal was worth $16 billion. However, Facebook is also giving WhatsApp $3 billion in restricted stock units.
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