Facebook to Purchase Instagram for a Billion Dollars
April 17th, 2012
Facebook has announced its intention to purchase the photo sharing application Instagram for one billion dollars, about 762 million euros. The transaction is expected to be completed during this quarter and will be paid for in cash and stock.
On his profile on the social network, the creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerbeg, said “for years, we have focused on building the best experience of sharing photos with your friends and family.” “Now, we will be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team.”
The founder and CEO of Instagram, Kevin Systrom, stated in his blog that when he and Mike Krieger created the application almost two years ago, “we planned to change and improve the way the world communicates and shares. We have had an incredible time watching Instagram evolving into a community of people from around the whole world. Today, we could not be happier to announce that Instagram has agreed to be acquired by Facebook.”
Systrom said that the application is not going to disappear, and that the company will continue to add new features to the product to “find new ways of creating an even better mobile photo experience”.
The application, which premiered its version for Android last week, has already exceeded one million downloads on the Google Play online store. Up to now it has only been available on Apple’s IOS platform, and currently has more than 31 million users worldwide.
Cinco Dias reported that for Zuckerberg this move “is an important milestone for Facebook because it is the first time we are acquiring a product and a company with many users. We have no plans for many more transactions like this, if any at all. But providing the best photo sharing experience is one of the reasons why many people love Facebook, and we knew it would be worthwhile bringing these two companies together”.
Facebook is preparing its IPO for the first part of the year, and may be the largest public offering since the release of Google stock in 2004.
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