Facebook acquires Instagram for $1 billion
Facebook announced on Monday that it has agreed to purchase Instagram, the maker of the popular photo sharing service for iPhone, for $1 billion.
Facebook will acquire the San Francisco-based company for a combination of cash and shares in Facebook totaling $1 billion. The transaction is expected to close this quarter.
In a statement, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he is committed to building and growing Instagram independently, meaning it will not be tied into Facebook's existing social networking website.
"We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience," Zuckerberg said. "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."
Instagram has been one of the most popular applications for the iPhone, routinely appearing among the top downloaded applications for iOS. With the application, users can take a picture and apply a digital filter, then upload and share pictures on a variety of social networking services, including Instagram's own.
Instagram first launched in the iPhone App Store in October of 2010, and it eventually made its way to the Google Android platform just last week, achieving more than a million downloads via Google Play in less than 24 hours. Facebook's announcement that it will acquire Instagram comes just six days after the application became available for Android.
Apple itself highlighted Instagram in December with its own iTunes Rewind 2011 selections. Apple's editorial team selected Instagram as the iPhone application of the year for 2011.
[ View article on AppleInsider ]
Comments
Is it just me, or did this come from WAY out in left field?
A little disconcerting if you don't anticipate it IMO.
They said Instagram has no business model and no clear plan of monetizing their service.. Turns out they have. Get Facebook to buy them and grossly overpay.
Things are changing. This is the age of collecting users information. Instagram business model is to have as many of your pictures as possible and to link them to your Facebook or twitter account. Facebook want access to more of your personal data including pictures. The more they know about you the more accurate ads they serve you. Not to mention MS Bing share of the collected users data.
If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em
Instagram was not competing with Facebook. They were setting themselves to be acquired by Google, Twitter, or Facebook.
NeXT Inc and all it's IP for $400 Million.
Yes, today's 20 somethings really know value. NOT!
Things are changing. This is the age of collecting users information. Instagram business model is to have as many of your pictures as possible and to link them to your Facebook or twitter account. Facebook want access to more of your personal data including pictures. The more they know about you the more accurate ads they serve you. Not to mention MS Bing share of the collected users data.
Such a stupid business model. Like many people I take steps to actively avoid online ads. Of the ones that sneak through, I pay little heed to them and the more they are "targeted" at me the more obvious and ridiculous they are.
F U C K sake Apple! If you let Twitter slip away I won't forgive you. I have been tweeting you to buy Instagram for 6 months!
As for Instagram, well good for them. If somebody can make an app and then sell their company for a billion dollars a short time afterwards, then I'd say that's a decent achievement. Personally, I don't use Instagram, as I'm not a retarded hipster and I'm not into taking crappy photos and then applying all sorts of dumb filters to them. But to each their own.
Instagram for $1 Billion?
NeXT Inc and all it's IP for $400 Million.
Yes, today's 20 somethings really know value. NOT!
That says more about the dollar than anything else.
Things are changing. This is the age of collecting users information. Instagram business model is to have as many of your pictures as possible and to link them to your Facebook or twitter account. Facebook want access to more of your personal data including pictures. The more they know about you the more accurate ads they serve you. Not to mention MS Bing share of the collected users data.
There are like 27 million users of Instagram... That's like paying $37 for each one. How they are planing to recover that money, user wise? I guess they eventually integrate it to Facebook, whatever they say now
Such a stupid business model. Like many people I take steps to actively avoid online ads. Of the ones that sneak through, I pay little heed to them and the more they are "targeted" at me the more obvious and ridiculous they are.
I do the same thing too. I don't even see ads since I use AdBlock. But you will be surprised how many people out there click those ads. It is stupid business model but it works! $1 billion for a two year business is super success.
Done.
That says more about the dollar than anything else.
$622.5M in 2011 dollars. But hey, it's not a valid social .com acquisition unless you overpay.