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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

#601

Post by diminish »

kamaal wrote: post #580
nullspace wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not really "pop" technology. Surprisingly, it's not used much in the United States, but in India it's basically a replacement for text messaging. Everyone from a 13 year old child to my grand mom uses it to keep in touch with friends and family members across the globe. IMHO, they were able to get to such widespread everyday usage because they such awesome and reliable technology. Much better than what Google ha…

I'm currently staying in Bangalore. I had to join WhatsApp because most of relatives on Facebook moved on to WhatsApp and there are atleast like 6-7 groups on my WhatsApp. Friends, Office colleagues, cousins and other people. I'm rarely seeing FB updates from my friends these days. Most of it happens on WhatsApp channels. So its not a surprise FB bought them. Because if they don't they risk losing all users to WhatsA…

i had the following, icq, msn zone, msn messenger (live, hotmail.....:-), aim, irc, meebo, y!messenger, sms, blackmerry messenger, gtalk/hangout, facebook messages, twitters dms. so far I'm resisting whatsapp, viber...

I'm curious what the future will bring.

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

#602

Post by kamaal »

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…

>>It's gonna be one tough mission for FB to convince WhatsApp users they're not gonna be playing around with their data.

99% of the WhatsApp users won't even know FB acquired WhatsApp. The half of remaining 1% don't really care about their data.

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

#604

Post by majani »

scrabble wrote: post #387
olegious wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android users pay an annual fee.

My first year free just ran out. They sent me a message that I get to continue for another year for free. It's hard to believe anyone pays for this.

I think they don't charge countries that don't support payment on app store

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

#606

Post by gaoshan »

primitivesuave wrote: post #103

My uncle in India runs a construction company, and literally every single aspect of company communication is done over WhatsApp. Each construction site has to constantly post pictures on WhatsApp, and basically all management and payroll decisions are made through WhatsApp discussions. Apparently this is not an uncommon practice, as businesses that were once administered by pen and paper are now using WhatsApp to imp…

And on the other side of the coin you have my folks in China who all use WeChat for everything. In fact, I was much more familiar with WeChat than WhatApp.

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

#607

Post by timfrietas »

DerpDerpDerp wrote: post #517
michaelmior wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's quite rare that any individual employee (probably excluding founders) is responsible for a significant percentage of the value of a company.

I mean, if you assume only 10% of that value is going to employees, then you need only half a percent (0.5%) of that to get a $800k bonus. If you've only been there 2-3 years, that's a substantial bonus that pushes your pay above market rate.

Only the first few engineers get that kind of equity nowadays.

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

#608

Post by howeyc »

tomkarlo wrote: post #393
antrix wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and you're capped at $1 per year per user Why would that be the case? There are always other revenue streams to be explored using the same user base.

Maybe, but they're also entirely speculative. We can only evaluate the price based on the business they have, not imaginary alternate revenue streams.

> We can only evaluate the price based on the business they have, not imaginary alternate revenue streams.

I would really like to agree, but given recent valuations that doesn't seem to be the case does it?

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

#609

Post by kamaal »

diminish wrote: post #601
kamaal wrote: post #580

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm currently staying in Bangalore. I had to join WhatsApp because most of relatives on Facebook moved on to WhatsApp and there are atleast like 6-7 groups on my WhatsApp. Friends, Office colleagues, cousins and other people. I'm rarely seeing FB updates from my friends these days. Most of it happens on WhatsApp channels. So its not a surprise FB bought them. Because if they don't they risk losing all users to WhatsA…

i had the following, icq, msn zone, msn messenger (live, hotmail.....:-), aim, irc, meebo, y!messenger, sms, blackmerry messenger, gtalk/hangout, facebook messages, twitters dms. so far I'm resisting whatsapp, viber... I'm curious what the future will bring.

I'm always late to adopt things.

But the issue is if everyone else is on a system, the only way to sanely communicate with them is to join that system.

I had to join FB and Orkut for the same reasons.

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

#610

Post by medell »

kamaal wrote: post #580
nullspace wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not really "pop" technology. Surprisingly, it's not used much in the United States, but in India it's basically a replacement for text messaging. Everyone from a 13 year old child to my grand mom uses it to keep in touch with friends and family members across the globe. IMHO, they were able to get to such widespread everyday usage because they such awesome and reliable technology. Much better than what Google ha…

I'm currently staying in Bangalore. I had to join WhatsApp because most of relatives on Facebook moved on to WhatsApp and there are atleast like 6-7 groups on my WhatsApp. Friends, Office colleagues, cousins and other people. I'm rarely seeing FB updates from my friends these days. Most of it happens on WhatsApp channels. So its not a surprise FB bought them. Because if they don't they risk losing all users to WhatsA…

I'm in Ecuador and most young people (which is a lot here, the average age is 26) use a combination of Whatsapp, FB and SMS. Ex-pats avoid SMS as they are usually on pay-as-you-go plans on $20 phones. It can't be like this forever, as the network effect leans towards a single messaging solution, the carriers will lose their hold on SMS as a revenue stream. But this will depend heavily on universal Internet access.
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