Facebook to acquire WhatsApp for $16B

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced that his company has entered a merger with WhatsApp for $4B in cash and $12B in stocks, for a combined total of $16B.

WhatsApp is an ad-free smartphone messaging app that works on Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Symbian, and Windows Phone.

In addition to the aforementioned amount, existing WhatsApp employees are also eligible to receive an accumulated amount of $3B in restricted stocks in Facebook, provided that they’ll stay with the company for four years after the merger is closed.

According to Zuckerberg, he’s ecstatic to work with WhatsApp CEO and co-founder Jan Koum and stated that the popular cross-platform messaging app “will complement our existing chat and messaging services to provide new tools for our community.

Despite of the recent merger, Zuckerberg’s camp stated that the two companies will still function independently, just like what happened when the company acquired Instagram back in 2012.

Rumors about Facebook being interested in the mobile messaging app has been floating around as early as December 2012, as we reported here.

This acquisition puts Whatapp as the biggest buy for Facebook ever and among the biggest in the tech sector for the last couple of years.

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