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

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

#421

Post by beedogs »

highCs wrote: post #411
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…

400,000,000 active users [0] 16,000,000,000 USD 10 years ---- $4 per user and per year

Yeah, I guess it's cheaper if you divide it by 10.

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

#422

Post by nullspace »

crucialfelix wrote: post #416
ams6110 wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll admit to a distinct feeling, that I've started to lose touch with pop technology. I've never heard of WhatsApp. Though I had most definitely heard of Hotmail in 1998.

WhatsApp has huge global growth. I heard that little chirp everywhere I went in India. friends in Africa use it all the time. in countries with SMS charges, whatsapp is a good deal.

> in countries with SMS charges

The funny thing is that in places like USA, you pay exorbitant amounts (~20 USD per month) for text messaging (when the real cost should be almost 0), yet it's still not caught on here - which is kinda sad.

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

#424

Post by MatthiasP »

paulrademacher wrote: post #237

I think I will nominate myself to be the single person on Hacker News, who after an announcement of a huge mega-acquisition, will skip all the high-minded analysis and discussion of business models and ROI, and simply say: Wow, I wish I had a $19B acquisition -- I'm jealous :-)

I would already be satisfied with a $19M acquisition.

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

#425

Post by mseri »

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…

With the RSU it's $19bn USD. That would make it even higher to ~$47 per user

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

#427

Post by nousernamesleft »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #312
orbifold wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some years ago the dominant messaging apps were icq and aol messenger and msn messenger. I think almost every new generation just uses their own messenger.

I think the number of active users is what makes this comparison invalid. At the time of AOL's acquisition of ICQ it had 20 million active users¹. WhatsApp has 430 million. In order to eclipse WhatsApp, a competitor would have to get substantially more than 10% of the entire global population. ICQ was dominant in its heyday, but the game wasn't won yet, so it was theirs to lose. In some sense that's still true: we ha…

Except the number of active users reinforces his point, it doesn't make it invalid.

>At the time of AOL's acquisition of ICQ it had 20 million active users¹

Or 40% of the internet using population of the world.

>WhatsApp has 430 million

Or 16% of the internet using population of the world.

40% is clearly closer to "won" than 16% is.

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

#428

Post by jmathai »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #300
pitchups wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, the reasons are different. But the motivation is the same : to stay ahead of the competition. In my view, and based on my own experience, Whatsapp is being used as a light-weight social network built around messaging and optimized for mobile phones. In fact, I share a lot more stuff with friends and family on Whatsapp - including pictures/videos/messages - than I do on Facebook. The more Whatsapp satisifies my…

yes yes and yes. But boy - 16 billion.

The opportunity cost is much larger if they miss out. It's the difference between ponying up tons of cash to stay relevant or fading into obscurity.

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

#429

Post by Rizz »

RandallBrown wrote: post #359

What does WhatsApp offer that regular old text messages don't? Is it just a price thing? I can group chat, send images, and send video with everyone, even people with dumbphones just fine using text messages (MMS).

Price. I only just got my first contract with unlimited sms, before that it was € 0,09 (12¢) after using the few hundred that come with your plan. MMS is not included in plans and still is € 0,50 (69¢). So everything that's an image or goes to a group goes on whatsapp.

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

#430

Post by munificent »

jacoblyles wrote: post #378
tomblomfield wrote: post #81

Sequoia just landed a 5x return on their fund with this one deal. At a rough guess, they put in $8m for 15% of the company in 2011, valuing it at around $53m. A $16B sale is a 300x increase in value, so Sequoia's stake is worth $2.4bn. Their standard fund size is around $500m. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/16/us-sequoia-funds-i...

I hope those guys do something interesting with their billions. But so far the only billionaires that realize the power of a billion dollars in personal capital seem to be Elon Musk and Peter Thiel.

Don't forget Bill Gates.
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