WhatsApp Goes Down Following $19 Billion Facebook Buy-Out

Last week Facebook announced that it is acquiring the messaging company WhatsApp for an approximate total of $16 billion. Included in the deal is $4 billion in cash, $12 billion of Facebook shares and an extra $3 billion in restricted stock units which will be granted to WhatApp’s founders and employees.

In spending so much money you can only imagine Mark Zuckerberg’s frustration when, on Saturday afternoon WhatsApp went down for over three hours, leaving its users unable to access the app.

WhatsApp was quick to respond to the issue and announced that it was suffering from “server issues”. However after the prolonged period of time users took to Twitter to vent their frustrations, with some comments saying: “Mark Zuckerberg please do us a favor. Never buy Twitter,” and, “Thanks Zuckerberg for re-uniting families tonight!”

This is not the first time that the messaging giant has gone down, with reports claiming that crashes occur nearly once a month. Yet with the spotlight shining brightly on the app since the acquisition announcement, this occurrence has certainly received more press than any other incident.

WhatsApp currently has over 450 million users, with 70 percent of these actively using the service every day. In a blog post Facebook outlined the reasons for the deal, saying that the two companies have a “shared mission to bring more connectivity and utility to the world by delivering core internet services efficiently and affordably.”

The announcement also outlined plans to allow WhatsApp to continue to operate independently whilst retaining the brand. “WhatsApp is on a path to connect 1 billion people. The services that reach that milestone are all incredibly valuable,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. “I’ve known Jan for a long time and I’m excited to partner with him and his team to make the world more open and connected.”

In view of the hiccup on Saturday, I wonder if Zuckerberg is as excited as he was before?

[Image via mashable]

SOURCE: http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/19/facebook-buying-whatsapp-for-16b-in-cash-and-stock-plus-3b-in-rsus/