Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014 for approximately $19.3 billion.
The agreement, announced in February 2014, combined cash, Facebook shares, and restricted stock units for WhatsApp employees. The final reported value rose from the initially announced $19 billion because Facebook’s share price increased before completion.
WhatsApp was founded in 2009 by Jan Koum and Brian Acton. By the acquisition announcement, it had become one of the world’s most widely used mobile-messaging services, with hundreds of millions of active users.
People sometimes confuse the buyer with Instagram’s owner history, but Facebook had already acquired Instagram in 2012. Facebook later rebranded its corporate identity as Meta in 2021; the WhatsApp acquisition itself was made by Facebook.