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Facebook Buying WhatsApp for $16B in Cash and Stock Plus $3B in RSUs

techcrunch.com

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Re: Facebook Buying WhatsApp for $16B in Cash and Stock Plus $3B in RSUs

#61

Post by gms »

NDizzle wrote: post #27

$16B for something I've never even heard of. I feel like I'm living under a pile of rocks.

Don't feel bad; no one really uses them in the US (except us foreigners to communicate with friends and family abroad).

They are the de-facto messaging service in the rest of the world (except for China).

Re: Facebook Buying WhatsApp for $16B in Cash and Stock Plus $3B in RSUs

#62

Post by kylec »

NDizzle wrote: post #27

$16B for something I've never even heard of. I feel like I'm living under a pile of rocks.

I'd heard the name, but I've never used the app and don't know anybody that does. Though according to this article (http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/20/whatsapp-dld/) they have hundreds of millions of active users, so clearly some people are.

Re: Facebook Buying WhatsApp for $16B in Cash and Stock Plus $3B in RSUs

#64

Post by bedhead »

When these bubbles really get crazy, you start questioning your sanity and wondering whether maybe you're just plain wrong. You actually start wondering if the valuations are justified after all, whether it be a house, stock certificate of a tech company, the mineral rights to some acres in the Haynesville shale, or some land on the Vegas Strip. My head hurts.

Re: Facebook Buying WhatsApp for $16B in Cash and Stock Plus $3B in RSUs

#65

Post by dandroid17 »

napoleond wrote: post #47

How many active users does WhatsApp have? I'm trying to put this in perspective with the Instagram purchase and the Snapchat offer... finding it very difficult to understand the math behind this acquisition, although it is obviously linked to the recent plays with Messenger.

400 million http://blog.whatsapp.com/index.php/2013/12/400-million-stori...

Re: Facebook Buying WhatsApp for $16B in Cash and Stock Plus $3B in RSUs

#67

Post by malandrew »

carlozt03 wrote: post #39
antr wrote: post #17

I used WhatsApp to stay away from FB's chat app. Telegram is picking up popularity within my circles... I'll default to that

How'd you get your friends to move over to Telegram? I'm trying to get that ball moving with my circle of friends.

Better yet, how do we get people to move to something distributed so that Facebook (or Google or anyone else) cannot acquire the service.

If we just move to another decentralized messaging service, that service will eventually get gobbled up as well, and we'll have to rinse and repeat.

Re: Facebook Buying WhatsApp for $16B in Cash and Stock Plus $3B in RSUs

#70

Post by flyinglizard »

Clearly this is an anti competitive move. Both functionality and users overlap with FB's own products.

So, for how long can FB pay billions a year to keep competition out of the market, when the barriers to entry are so low (as Snapchat and Instagram both demonstrated)?

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