Facebook to acquire WhatsApp for $19 Billion!!

Facebook Inc will buy fast-growing mobile-messaging startup WhatsApp for $19 billion in cash and stock. That's $4 billion in cash, $12 billion in shares, and $3 billion in restricted stock for the founders and employees that'll divest over the next 4 years.

"Our mission is to make the world more open and connected," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post. "We do this by building services that help people share any type of content with any group of people they want. WhatsApp will help us do this by continuing to develop a service that people around the world love to use every day."

(Credits : Facebook)

Facebook, of course, has their own popular IM app, Facebook Messenger, just like they had their own photos platform before they bought Instagram. WhatsApp has 450 million monthly active users, more than 70 percent of whom are active on a daily basis, Facebook said in a press release. The service is also adding 1 million new registered users per day. Like Instagram, WhatsApp will remain its own app, and be run independently from Facebook.

(Credits : Facebook)

The astronomical price tag demonstrates just how eager the social network is to subsume one of its largest challengers -- at least in terms of audiences. Though largely focused on member-to-member messaging, 5-year-old WhatsApp is grown to be greater than one-third the size of Facebook and offers a more insular social networking experience beloved by youngsters and foreigners.

(Credits : Facebook)

"You can continue to use WhatsApp no matter where in the world you are, or what smartphone you're using," Koum said. "And you can still count on absolutely no ads interrupting your communication. There would have been no partnership between our two companies if we had to compromise on the core principles that will always define our company, our vision and our product."

Facebook launches Internet.org Initiative To Connect The Unconnected World

To make the worldwide web available to two-thirds of the planet still not connected to the Internet Facebook announced the launch of Internet.org -- a global partnership with six other technology giants, namely Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Qualcomm and Samsung.

According to Facebook, only 2.7 billion people — just over a third of the world’s population — around the world currently have access to the Internet. And, the goal of Internet.org is to connect the remaining five billion people and provide the same opportunities enjoyed by those in the connected third of the world.

On the launch of Internet.org, Zuckerberg said, "For nine years, we've been on a mission to connect the world. We now connect more than 1 billion people, but to connect the next 5 billion we must solve a much bigger problem: the vast majority of people don't have access to the internet.”



"There are huge barriers in developing countries to connecting and joining the knowledge economy. Internet.org brings together a global partnership that will work to overcome these challenges, including making internet access available to those who cannot currently afford it," he added.

According to Facebook, the partners will focus on developing technologies that make mobile connectivity more affordable and decrease the cost of delivering data to people worldwide. This would also include collaborations to develop lower-cost, higher-quality smartphones. They will also work on ways to use less data by improving the efficiency of the apps built and how they can help businesses drive internet access to get people online.

The Internet.org website is currently live and provides an overview of its mission and goals.

Recently Internet search giant Google announced its ‘Project Loon’, a balloon-mounted Internet access service that is expected to help provide Internet access to rural and remote areas.

Few months earlier Cisco released the infographic below: “What Will The World Look Like When We Connect The Unconnected, Internet Of Everything“.

Credit : Cisco