Which company acquired WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion?

Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014 for a headline price of $19 billion. The deal joined the world’s rapidly growing mobile messaging service with one of the largest social-network companies.

Facebook announced the agreement on February 19, 2014, when WhatsApp had hundreds of millions of users but a relatively small staff. The consideration consisted of $4 billion in cash, $12 billion in Facebook shares, and $3 billion in restricted stock units for WhatsApp employees and founders. Because Facebook’s share price changed, the transaction’s eventual value was often reported as roughly $21.8 billion.

WhatsApp founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton retained operational independence promises after the acquisition, including a commitment to avoid traditional banner advertising. The purchase also caused privacy concerns because users wondered how their data and phone numbers might be handled. A frequent mix-up is Google: it reportedly considered buying WhatsApp, but Facebook—not Google, Apple, or Microsoft—completed the acquisition. Facebook later rebranded its parent company as Meta in 2021.