Update: Earlier reports had placed the purchase amount at $16 billion but updated information indicates that Facebook agreed to buy messaging company WhatsApp for $19 billion in cash and stock, a blockbuster transaction that dwarfs the already sky-high prices that other startups have been able to recently command. Ironically, Facebook turned down co-founder Brian Acton for a job in 2009.
The 55-employee company, which acts as a kind of replacement for text messaging, has seen its use more than double in the past nine months to 450 million monthly users. That makes its service more popular than Twitter Inc. the widely used microblogging service which has about 240 million users and is currently valued at about $30 billion.
The transaction, which includes $3 billion in restricted stock units to be granted to WhatsApp’s founders and employees over four years, ranks as the largest-ever purchase of a company backed by venture capital.
