Which company acquired Instagram in 2012?
Answer
Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012. The deal was announced on April 9, 2012, and valued the photo-sharing service at approximately $1 billion in cash and stock.
At the time, Instagram was a rapidly growing mobile app founded by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. It had launched on iOS in 2010 and released an Android version just days before Facebook announced the acquisition. The Android launch generated more than one million downloads in less than a day, highlighting Instagram's momentum and broadening reach.
Facebook said Instagram would remain independently managed, an important detail because Instagram had developed a distinct product and community. The acquisition was completed after regulatory review, including approval from the United Kingdom's Office of Fair Trading and clearance from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission later in 2012.
Today, Facebook's parent company is called Meta Platforms, following Facebook's 2021 corporate rebrand. That can create a wording trap: Meta is the current parent-company name, but the company that acquired Instagram in 2012 was Facebook, Inc. Microsoft, Twitter, and Google were not the buyers. Instagram subsequently became one of Meta's most important global platforms.