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February 19, 2014, 8:20 PM
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| Facebook: |
Facebook to acquire WhatsApp for $4B cash, $12B in Facebook shares, and $3B in restricted stock units — Facebook to Acquire WhatsApp — Facebook today announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire WhatsApp, a rapidly growing cross-platform mobile messaging company …
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SEC, TechCrunch, Re/code, The Verge, BuzzFeed, Computerworld, VentureBeat, Gizmodo, SiliconANGLE, Gigaom, TechCrunch, Businessweek, Business Insider, Business Insider, Forbes, Marketing Land, AllFacebook, Digital Trends, USA Today, The Register, AppleInsider, Guardian, ReadWrite, Gizmodo, Inside Facebook, iMore, GeekWire, The Next Web, GeekTime, AdExchanger, TechHive, 9to5Mac, Boing Boing, ClickZ, Slate, Entrepreneur, Pocketnow, POPSUGAR, TechnoBuffalo, Electronista, BBC, The Droid Guy, Digital Music News, memeburn, SlashGear, bizjournals, Ubergizmo, Gamasutra, CrackBerry.com, Mashable, TechSpot, Phandroid, iPhone Hacks and iDownloadBlog.com …
Tweets: @benedictevans, @sarahfrier, @sama, @danprimack, @fmanjoo, @kirtan, @paulg, @sarahfrier, @benedictevans, @evelynrusli, @parislemon, @dannysullivan, @codybrown, @fromedome and @evelynrusli
| Jan Koum / WhatsApp Blog: |
WhatsApp says it will remain autonomous and nothing will change for users — Facebook — Almost five years ago we started WhatsApp with a simple mission: building a cool product used globally by everybody. Nothing else mattered to us. — Today we are announcing a partnership …
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ZDNet, Gigaom, TechCrunch, PC Magazine, CNET, BGR, AmongTech, Cult of Mac, Wired.co.uk and WebProNews
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| Jim Goetz / Sequoia Capital: |
WhatsApp in numbers: 450M active users, 32 engineers, $0 in marketing, and only $1/year to use — Four Numbers That Explain Why Facebook Acquired WhatsApp — WhatsApp Co-Founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton — Earlier today, Facebook announced its acquisition of WhatsApp for $16 billion.
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GeekWire, Venture Capital Dispatch, TechCrunch, Daring Fireball, Business Insider, Gigaom, MoneyBeat, Business Insider, bizjournals and Deadline.com
Tweets: @sequoia_capital, @jason, @om, @mikeisaac, @sequoia_capital, @sriramk, @sequoia_capital, @panzer, @sequoia_capital, @peter_tl and @fmanjoo
| Mark Zuckerberg / Facebook: |
WhatsApp and Messenger serve different uses, Facebook will continue investing in both — I'm excited to announce that we've agreed to acquire WhatsApp and that their entire team will be joining us at Facebook. — Our mission is to make the world more open and connected.
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Digits, TheHill, Business Insider, Boing Boing, Financial Post and Techly
Tweets: @tedr and @nickbilton
| TechCrunch: |
Why Facebook Dropped $19B On Whatsapp: Reach Into Europe, Emerging Markets — With 450 million monthly users and a million more signing up each day, WhatsApp was just too far ahead in the international mobile messaging race for Facebook Messenger to catch up as you can see in the 2013 chart above.| Zoran Basich / Venture Capital Dispatch: |
Facebook's $19 Billion WhatsApp Acquisition Is Largest Ever for Venture-Backed Company — Facebook's acquisition of mobile-messaging company WhatsApp for about $19 billion is the largest deal ever for a venture-capital-backed startup. … The deal tops US West Media's acquisition …
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USA Today, MoneyBeat, The Verge, TechCrunch, Valleywag, The Next Web, TIME, The Week and TechnoBuffalo. Tweets: @carlosdomingo
| Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider: |
Zuckerberg reached out to Koum in 2012, and proposed the deal at dinner at his home this February — The Inside Story Of How Facebook Bought WhatsApp For $19 Billion — Today Facebook announced that it acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion. — It was a deal two years in the making, according to a source close to the situation.| David Rowan / Wired.co.uk: |
| Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom: |
Wheeler unveils new proposed rules for network neutrality, will try to stop “improper blocking” — The FCC announced its response to an explosive court decision that ended “net neutrality” last month: it will not appeal the decision, but scramble to impose new rules.| Adi Robertson / The Verge: |
| Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica: |
Google Fiber chooses nine metro areas for possible expansion — Google Fiber is ready to expand, as Google has identified nine metro areas scattered around the country as possible sites of deployment, the company said. — “We've invited 34 cities in nine metro areas across the US to work … | Bloomberg: |
Google Capital Lands $300 Million and Leaps Into Web Education — Google Inc. (GOOG)'s new investment arm has $300 million in fresh capital to put to work this year and is starting the dealmaking with its first foray into Web education. — Google Capital, established by the search company …
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ZDNet, 9to5Google and Xconomy
| Josh Lowensohn / The Verge: |
Google I/O is back June 25-26 and you'll need to win a lottery to attend — Google just announced dates for its annual I/O developers conference, an event that has typically brought new products and updates to other services. This year's conference will be held from June 25-26 … | Chris Welch / The Verge: |
Samsung goes back to trashing Apple with latest commercials — After some innovative advertising campaigns, Samsung's latest commercials once again find the company setting its sights on Apple. In a new ad for the Galaxy Note 3, Samsung uses NBA star LeBron James to highlight …
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9to5Google, Daring Fireball, Softpedia News, Breaking Apple News …, MacRumors and iMore
| Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times: |
Federal court in Utah sides with broadcasters against Aereo — Aereo transmits via tiny antennas. — Aereo's streak of legal victories over the broadcasting industry has come to an end. — The startup company, which sends broadcast television signals to consumers via the Internet … | Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
LinkedIn Opens Its Publishing Platform To All Members — To date, LinkedIn has allowed a small, editorially selected group of “Influencers” like Richard Branson, Bill Gates and Barack Obama to publish their thoughts and advice to its network as long-form blog posts.
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LinkedIn Official Blog, The Technology Chronicles, USA Today, Marketing Pilgrim, Marketing Land and CNET. Tweets: @jeffweiner. See also Mediagazer
| Nathan Ingraham / The Verge: |
BlackBerry's CEO is ‘outraged’ by T-Mobile's attempts to convert its customers to the iPhone — BlackBerry's new CEO John Chen is taking issue with what appears to be a fairly innocent T-Mobile promotion. Last week, T-Mobile sent out an email to some customers currently using …
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Inside BlackBerry, multimediacapsule …, CrackBerry.com, Re/code, eWeek, ZDNet, BBC, GeekWire, PhoneArena, Los Angeles Times, GeekWire and PC Magazine
| Nick Summers / Businessweek: |
New Tinder Security Flaw Exposed Users' Exact Locations for Months — Internet security researchers in New York say that a flaw in Tinder, the super-popular hookup app, made it possible to find users' precise location for between 40 and 165 days, without any public notice from the company.| Leena Rao / TechCrunch: |
eBay Acquires PhiSix To Integrate 3-D Virtual Try On Technology Across The Marketplace And More — It looks like 3-D virtual try-on technology will soon make an appearance on eBay. The marketplace giant is announcing the acquisition of PhiSix, a company that develops 3-D visualization and simulation technologies for clothing.| Ellis Hamburger / The Verge: |
Loop Wallet review: mobile payments are finally everywhere you want to be — Loop tricks any cash register into thinking your phone is your credit card — NFC was supposed to be the future. — My next phone was going to include the technology, which would let me pay at any cash register …
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Re/code, Gigaom, Engadget, BGR, TechCrunch, Engadget, AppleInsider and MacRumors
| Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch: |
Google Starts Making The New Google Maps The Default For Everybody — After just under a year in preview, Google today announced that it is now rolling out the new Google Maps to all of its users as the default option. — Since Google announced the new version of Maps at its I/O developer conference …
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Google LatLong, The Verge, Digital Trends, Gigaom, PC Magazine and Search Engine Land
| Nathaniel Popper / DealBook: |
Winklevoss brothers launch new Bitcoin price index called Winkdex as their Bitcoin Trust moves closer to regulatory approval — Before a Bitcoin Fund Comes a Price Index — Stock traders have the S.&P. 500. Bitcoin bettors will have the Winkdex. — The new financial index takes … | Eileen Yu / ZDNet: |
Xiaomi kicks off global expansion with Singapore launch — Summary: Chinese smartphone darling, Xiaomi, has kicked off its global expansion plans in Singapore where its Android devices will go on sale this Friday, marking the company's first foray into markets outside of Greater China.
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CNET, Softpedia News, Businessweek, Digits and Ubergizmo
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