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posted by
Dopefish
on Thursday February 20 2014, @09:00AM
from the when-will-this-darn-bubble-pop-already? dept.
from the when-will-this-darn-bubble-pop-already? dept.
lubricus writes "Facebook announced plans to acquire WhatsApp for four billion cash, plus 12 billion in Facebook shares.
Additionally, WhatsApp employees and founders will receive three billion in restricted stock which will vest in four years. Facebook also agreed to a one billion dollar break up fee.
WhatsApp says they have message volume which approaches the global SMS volume, and hope to have one billion users. Even at those figures, Facebook is paying $16 per user.
I'm guessing WhatsApp will send Snapchat developers a cake."
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Facebook to Buy WhatsApp for 16 Billion
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"I prefer the blunted cudgels of the followers of the Serpent God."
-- Sean Doran the Younger
(Score: 4, Insightful) by cockroach on Thursday February 20 2014, @01:27PM
It's a bit sad to see how the people who are jumping ship now completely fail to take a minute or two to re-think the basics. It seems that most of the people I know just move on to the next proprietary, closed communications system. In a few years they are going to complain again when that thing gets bought by one of the big players and still do the exact same move yet again. And again.
Meanwhile I am happy that I've never used WhatsApp and I will keep talking to my buddies through Jabber/XMPP, laughing in the face of everybody whose personal data has just been sold to FB with a big, fat "told you so" expression on my face.
(Score: 1) by neiras on Thursday February 20 2014, @05:56PM
I like talking to my family. They all use Google services. Until recently, Google Talk supported Jabber federation - but no longer.
I have been sucked into Hangouts and I hate it. Most of my contacts were as well when federation died.
Critical mass is a real thing. The jabber community got screwed by Google.
(Score: 1) by cockroach on Friday February 21 2014, @12:24AM
Very much so. To me, this was when they finally became truly evil. It's one thing to build walled gardens and try to trick everyone into using them (i.e. Google+), but closing a previously open service once you have enough momentum is just wrong.