Facebook Buys Instagram For 1 Billion Dollars...

[licensed to ball]

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/04/09/facebook-buys-instagram-for-1-billion/

Facebook announced today that it has reached an agreement to acquire Instagram, a fun, popular photo-sharing app for mobile devices.

The total consideration for San Francisco-based Instagram is approximately $1 billion in a combination of cash and shares of Facebook. The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close later this quarter.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, posted about the transaction on his Timeline:

I’m excited to share the news that we’ve agreed to acquire Instagram and that their talented team will be joining Facebook.

For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.

We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram’s strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.

That’s why we’re committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.

We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience. We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook.

These and many other features are important parts of the Instagram experience and we understand that. We will try to learn from Instagram’s experience to build similar features into our other products. At the same time, we will try to help Instagram continue to grow by using Facebook’s strong engineering team and infrastructure.

This is an important milestone for Facebook because it’s the first time we’ve ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all. But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together.

We’re looking forward to working with the Instagram team and to all of the great new experiences we’re going to be able to build together.

 

[tomdiginson]

Tech Dominance.

 

[odog24]

now ppl are really gunna b mad about it being "exclusive"

 

[socluis90]

social media monopoly in the making...

 

[shorty doo wop]

Monopolizing social networks

 

[calibeebee]

damn I liked instagram too, they better not make any changes

 

[Peep Game]

As long as they don't fuse the two together.

 

[agthekid]

Originally Posted by calibeebee

damn I liked instagram too, they better not make any changes

at you thinking it won't be.

 

[guillermo gutierez]

what is instagram?

im taking a +!#* right now and I dont wanna do alotta readin

 

[iYen]

Originally Posted by LiCeNseD To BaLL

I .... you not I googled the same pic to post it before entering this thread.

 

[an dee 51o]

Originally Posted by LiCeNseD To BaLL

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/04/09/facebook-buys-instagram-for-1-billion/

Facebook announced today that it has reached an agreement to acquire Instagram, a fun, popular photo-sharing app for mobile devices.

The total consideration for San Francisco-based Instagram is approximately $1 billion in a combination of cash and shares of Facebook. The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close later this quarter.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, posted about the transaction on his Timeline:

I’m excited to share the news that we’ve agreed to acquire Instagram and that their talented team will be joining Facebook.

For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.

We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram’s strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.

That’s why we’re committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.

We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience. We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook.

These and many other features are important parts of the Instagram experience and we understand that. We will try to learn from Instagram’s experience to build similar features into our other products. At the same time, we will try to help Instagram continue to grow by using Facebook’s strong engineering team and infrastructure.

This is an important milestone for Facebook because it’s the first time we’ve ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all. But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together.

We’re looking forward to working with the Instagram team and to all of the great new experiences we’re going to be able to build together.

trollface

 

[mexcellence]

Originally Posted by LiCeNseD To BaLL

 

[mp3911]

App bubble? I think so.

 

[xxjaguar25xx]

I was actually thinking it'd be a good idea in investing or buying shares in instagram

Can one of you stock experts shed some light on if that would have been posible

 

[atlien seeko]

Facebook's downlfall will be Google. Mark my words.

 

[ksteezy]

this dude Zuckerberg.....son stored away all his dambs in the same place where his myspace login info is

instagram dudes came off though....why couldnt i have thought of such a simple idea...lol

 

[maxelite]

Stand alone app still according to Zuckerberg.

 

[finallyfamous]

Zuckerberg

 

[trappstar]

An app is worth a billion. Incredible. And I think it's time for Facebook to face antitrust scrutiny. The difficultly is the inherit intangible characteristics of the social media model. But it seems as though anytime another alternative to facebook arises, facebook buys them and traps you into their model. It's like you can't ever quit facebook because they buy all of the other alternative outlets forcing you into their system.

 

[presequel]

Originally Posted by ATLien Seeko

Facebook's downlfall will be Google. Mark my words.

Not exactly a bold statement. People have said that for years.

 

[Fong$tarr]

Wow. This is pretty much an app developers dream. Create something that gets super popular and sell it for millions/billions. Congrats to the Instagram dudes here in SF. I just hope Facebook doesn't ruin Instagram in their own odd way. Its simplicity is what makes it work.

 

[beh235]

Our lives are over, you CANNOT get away

 

[secretzofwar]

Zuck's the man. Next up: Twitter?!?

 

[crazy dav0]

wow an app ... that %*% cray

 

[crcballer55]

Originally Posted by xXJaguar25Xx

I was actually thinking it'd be a good idea in investing or buying shares in instagram

Can one of you stock experts shed some light on if that would have been posible

Not possible. It's a private company so you can't buy shares on the open market without having connections to an investment bank and even then you would need several hundred thousand minimum to invest for them to even talk to you.