Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014 for about $19 billion, adding one of the world’s largest mobile messaging services to its portfolio.
WhatsApp was founded in 2009 by Jan Koum and Brian Acton, former Yahoo employees. It began as a status-updating application and evolved into a simple messaging service using internet connections rather than traditional SMS. Its rapid international growth was especially strong in markets where text messaging costs were significant.
The original transaction was announced as $16 billion in cash and stock, plus approximately $3 billion in restricted stock units for WhatsApp employees, producing the commonly cited total of about $19 billion. WhatsApp remained a separate app and brand. Facebook later changed its corporate name to Meta in 2021, but WhatsApp continues as one of Meta’s principal messaging products.