[kamasutra]

Facebook has bought messaging app WhatsApp in a deal worth a total of $19bn (£11.4bn) in cash and shares.

It is the social networking giant's biggest acquisition to date.

WhatsApp has over 450 million monthly users and is popular with people looking to avoid text messaging charges.

In a statement announcing the deal, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg described WhatsApp's services as "incredibly valuable"

http://m.bbc.com/news/business-26266689

[presidentcarter]

Dammit. I love whatsapp. Let me guess...Zuckerfuck is going to screw it all up. Link it to facebook profiles and whatnot.

[xpatplayer]

19 billion is a lot of money, even for Whatsapp. I thing the Zuck is trying to make Facebook a tech-services Conglomerate. He purchased Instagram and now Whatsapp. Its not just to make Facebook integrated.

On the dark side, we'll probably see ads. Bright side is no more fee.

Even if these scenarios are not the case, he's definitely planning something huge.

[Roosh]

That's $42 per Whatsapp subscriber.

[Tuthmosis]

Thank god I never joined.

FuckThatt.

[Gunner]

WhatsApp rocks.

Metrics of acquisition:

$345M USD per employee
$42 USD per user

For Instagram they paid $30 USD per user

[scorpion]

How does WhatsApp make money? Do they have ads or something? Or are they just another social media company that has a bunch of users and no revenue?

[Ensam]

Facebook's market cap is $173 billion and they have 1.11 billion users so a Facebook user is worth $156.

Teens are migrating away from Facebook so Facebook is just buying up the services they're migrating too.

[Slim Shady]

I don't the buzz about What'sApp. With the new FB messenger, you are sending texts to your friends internationally, for FREE, for however long, not just the first year...Can someone explain to me why this is so popular? Seems to be big in non-US countries. I know it is HUGE amongst my cousins in India.

[Mekorig]

I do not know. Maybe because you did not have to deal with FB to send your messages? Frack, FB and Google are looking more and more like ciberpunk Corps each day.

[Sourcecode]

Ive said for a while... I think Facebook is one of those companies that too big to fail.
They'll buy out their competition. Those dudes aren't playing around. They want everything.
Imagine all the info they can suck up from having whatsapp subscribers.

[Matt3B]

(02-19-2014 07:55 PM)scorpion Wrote:  

How does WhatsApp make money? Do they have ads or something? Or are they just another social media company that has a bunch of users and no revenue?

You pay to sign up.

[Kickb]

shit!

Edit: You guys pay for whatsap?

[Hencredible Casanova]

Whatsapp is crucial for international travel game.

[BlurredSevens]

I think Facebook is somewhere around the "delusion" phase.

[Wahawahwah]

Fuck.
I love whatsapp.

On another note, I think Whatsapp is free for life for those ppl who signed up within the first year. My subscription gets auto-renewed every year.

[Atlantic]

How much are ye guys paying? Ive been using it for free all along.

[Wahawahwah]

(02-19-2014 10:36 PM)Atlantic Wrote:  

How much are ye guys paying? Ive been using it for free all along.

Its a dollar a year I think.

[Emancipator]

Holy fuck 19 Billion Dollars

"The deal translates to roughly 9 per cent of Facebook's market value. In comparison, Google's biggest deal, Motorola Mobility, stood at $12.5 billion, while Microsoft's largest was Skype at $8.5 billion. Apple, meanwhile, has never done a deal above $1 billion."

[BIGINJAPAN]

dot com bubble 2.0..... when will we learn ?

[iop890]

Fuck, now Facebook is trying to cockblock me in Thailand? Guess I can switch to line.

[Gator]

TPTB at facebook should understand that they have no business being valued where they are. I haven't looked at how they're purchasing whatsapp but I'm assuming it's through stock and little to no cash. So it makes sense that they are taking advantage of their high value by buying anything tangible since the valuation is nothing but an illusion anyway. It's not really costing them $19 billion.

In their situation, it's far easier to just gobble up competitors than actually create something since 1) it's no guarantee that what they create catches on with the public and 2) they can just leverage the high stock price.

Once upon a time, AOL bought Time Warner. Think about that.

[Teddykgb]

I think it must be free at first because I've been using for the past 6 months and never paid anything. Maybe the first year free?

[Slim Shady]

First year is free yeah. Still don't get the big deal over this app.

[Sourcecode]

this isn't saying either product will fail. in this day and age it's often easier to buy than create. buy existing infrastructure and fix it up/change it.

if you aren't using what's app. how do you talk to international chicks?
hopefully Facebook doesn't integrate what's app. I use the app so I don't have to give Facebook.
it's a great resource for texting