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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

#141

Post by TylerE »

josh2600 wrote: post #104

For everyone saying this is a waste of money, consider the commentary around Instagram at $1B. Basically the world said that this was a horrible acquisition at the time, but in retrospect, buying Instagram was quite cheap. Buying your closest competitor for less than 15% of your market cap is usually a good idea. Fast forward to today. What'sapp is the dominant messaging application across the world. Carriers hate it…

I'm not sure that sort of relativism makes sense. Making a really bad purchase doesn't make your earlier merely bad purchases less bad.

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

#142

Post by nwh »

sheetjs wrote: post #128
nwh wrote: post #60

400,000,000 active users [0] 16,000,000,000 USD ---- $40 per user That's an incredible cost. We can assume Facebook is paying for the userbase, the app itself and it's infrastructure would basically run itself. It's less appealing when you realise that there's probably a miniscule fraction of WhatsApp users that don't have a Facebook account. > WhatsApp will remain autonomous and operate independently. You can contin…

Try this: FB market cap ~170B .75B users (EDIT: originally quoted FB 1.2B users, but that is the total count and WhatsApp quotes active users) --> market cap implies roughly $225 per active user. In that light, 40/AU is cheap. Even if you assume 50% overlap, 80/AU is still a deal compared to how the market values FB users

I was using active users as a metric in my parent comment, using the same measure Facebook has 750M active users for a cost of $227USD per user.

[0]: http://investor.fb.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=821954

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

#143

Post by wpietri »

NDizzle wrote: post #27

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

The only reason I ended up using it is a European friend who wanted to stay in touch. This data is old, but it gives you a rough idea: http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/04/global-messaging-market/mes...

7% penetration in the US, 16% in Canada, 84% in Germany, 97% in Spain.

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

#145

Post by kayoone »

josh2600 wrote: post #104

For everyone saying this is a waste of money, consider the commentary around Instagram at $1B. Basically the world said that this was a horrible acquisition at the time, but in retrospect, buying Instagram was quite cheap. Buying your closest competitor for less than 15% of your market cap is usually a good idea. Fast forward to today. What'sapp is the dominant messaging application across the world. Carriers hate it…

why ? viber and whatsapp are still there and will be in the future, i dont see new room for a messaging app.

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

#146

Post by sheetjs »

nwh wrote: post #142
sheetjs wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try this: FB market cap ~170B .75B users (EDIT: originally quoted FB 1.2B users, but that is the total count and WhatsApp quotes active users) --> market cap implies roughly $225 per active user. In that light, 40/AU is cheap. Even if you assume 50% overlap, 80/AU is still a deal compared to how the market values FB users

I was using active users as a metric in my parent comment, using the same measure Facebook has 750M active users for a cost of $227USD per user. [0]: http://investor.fb.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=821954

That only strengthens my argument: market values at ~225 / active user

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

#147

Post by ebrenes »

asselinpaul wrote: post #68
berzniz wrote: post #20

I wish they didn't sell. Love the product, FB will ruin it.

Why do you love it? I'm honestly curious as to what it does that SMS, Messenger or other messaging apps don't do.

I get charged a fee per SMS, but I just need an internet connection with WhatsApp. Even when I'm abroad and I switch my SIM card to a different provider contacts can still reach me.

I can have group chats in WhatsApp and send video, images and sound. Plus I like how it lets me know if messages have been delivered. It's also fast and doesn't drain my battery mercilessly. The times I've tried Skype on my mobile device I can see my battery meter go down as I type.

But mostly I use it because all of the people I generally interact with in real life are on it. All of my family, friends and acquaintances use it.

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

#148

Post by johngalt »

huskyr wrote: post #132

Facebook suddenly acquired the world's (if we exclude the US and China) most popular messaging service. I communicate with this app with all my friends, and share stuff that i have no intention of ever putting on Facebook. Everything that once seemed 'private' is now in the hands of a website that forces it users to share as much as possible with marketeers and advertising companies. It's gonna be one tough mission f…

The closest option is XMPP. Unfortunately it's suffered an extreme case of scope creep.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XMPP

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

#149

Post by notahacker »

psbp wrote: post #75
nwh wrote: post #60

400,000,000 active users [0] 16,000,000,000 USD ---- $40 per user That's an incredible cost. We can assume Facebook is paying for the userbase, the app itself and it's infrastructure would basically run itself. It's less appealing when you realise that there's probably a miniscule fraction of WhatsApp users that don't have a Facebook account. > WhatsApp will remain autonomous and operate independently. You can contin…

Or facebook is trying to trivialize and destroy the startup market.

Destroy? There will be a host of new messaging startups created off the back of this, and suddenly the Snapchat valuation looks sane. Do one thing that Facebook does but better is the new gold rush. Sure, most of them will fail hard without raising a cent in revenue, but others will start to threaten to chip away at Facebook's market share..

Anecdata: I get a lot more messages on FB messenger than WhatsApp...

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