Facebook to Buy WhatsApp in $16 Billion Deal — That’s $36 Per Monthly Active User
Facebook has just agreed to shell out $16 billion in a cash and stock deal to acquire the messaging service WhatsApp — 16 more times than it first agreed to pay for Instagram.
The reason that Facebook was willing to spend so much more boils down to a single but sprawling thing: WhatsApp’s global user base. Though the app is still somewhat under the radar in the U.S., it said in December that it has 400 million monthly active users, and Facebook said Wednesday that the figure was now 450 million, 70% of whom are active on any given day.
Nineteen billion messages and 600 million photos are sent daily on WhatsApp, said its CEO, Jan Koum, during a conference call Wednesday. Mr. Koum will join Facebook’s board.
