Open Links In New Tab
Mobile Archives Advertise Site News Contact Editors
Techmeme
February 20, 2014, 8:00 AM
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter

Top News

Facebook:
Facebook to acquire WhatsApp for $4B cash, $12B in Facebook shares, and $3B in restricted stock units, CEO Koum to join Facebook's Board  —  Facebook to Acquire WhatsApp  —  Facebook today announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire WhatsApp, a rapidly growing cross …
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.
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 …
Parmy Olson / Forbes:
Jan Koum's rag-to-riches tale, which ended with him signing the WhatsApp deal on the door of his former welfare office  —  How Jan Koum Built WhatsApp Into Facebook's New $19 Billion Baby  —  Jan Koum picked a meaningful spot to sign the $19 billion deal to sell his company WhatsApp to Facebook earlier today.
More: Open Gardens.  Thanks:@rmac18
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.
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.
David Rowan / Wired.co.uk:
WhatsApp: The inside story  —  When he was living on welfare, Jan Koum's family collected food stamps a couple of blocks from the unmarked Mountain View office that now houses his messaging company, WhatsApp.  An émigré at 16 from Communist Ukraine — where phones were routinely tapped …
Jessi Hempel / Fortune:
Google offered to buy WhatsApp for $10 billion  —  Facebook is buying WhatsApp for $19 billion, but it wasn't the only suitor.  —  My colleague Dan Primack has written a smart post on the numbers that weren't in the press release Facebook (FB) issued announcing it will acquire messaging service WhatsApp.
Amir Efrati / The Information:
Google offered to pay WhatsApp to notify them of any acquisition talks, but was rebuffed  —  Google's Unusual Offer to WhatsApp  —  More than six months ago, Google approached WhatsApp with an odd offer: It would pay the mobile messaging startup in exchange for the right to be notified …
Tweets: @howardlindzon
Benedict Evans:
WhatsApp's acquisition illustrates most of the key trends in consumer tech today  —  Whatsapp and $19bn  —  Facebook just bought WhatsApp, paying $16bn in cash and stock and $3bn in RSUs.  WhatsApp has 450m active users, of which 72% are active every day.  It has just 32 engineers.
Tweets: @sfiegerman and @stevesi
Zoran Basich / Venture Capital Dispatch:
Facebook's $19 Billion WhatsApp Acquisition Is Largest Ever for Venture-Backed Company
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
How One Scammer Manipulated Apple's Top Charts To Earn Tens Of Thousands Daily Using A $10 GameSalad Template  —  Something fishy has been going on with Apple's App Store top charts.  No, I'm not talking about “Flappy Bird” (well, maybe that too), but rather how on earth two different developers used …
Tom Simonite / MIT Technology Review:
Yahoo Launches $10 Million Research Effort to Invent a Smarter Siri  —  Academics at CMU will try to extend Yahoo's services with mobile apps that act like personal assistants.  —  Yahoo's future mobile apps could come with a dash of intelligence that lets them act like personal assistants.
More: Yahoo Labs
Jonathan Shieber / TechCrunch:
Stealthy Security Company Apprity Raises $8 Million  —  The stealthy business security company Apprity, launched by two former Oracle employees, has raised $8 million in its first institutional financing.  —  For its first venture round, Apprity turned to seasoned security technology investors Promod Haque …
More: VatorNews
Matt McGee / Marketing Land:
Yahoo Gemini Brings Together Mobile Search & Native Ads In Single Ad Marketplace  —  Yahoo has announced a new ad marketplace that combines mobile search and native ads.  —  It's called Yahoo Gemini and it's available as part of Yahoo Ad Manager, the company's existing self-service ad buying platform.
Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:
Grand St Launches Self-Serve Marketplace For Hardware Makers To List Their Goods  —  Online gadget retailer Grand St wants to be the go-to spot for interesting new hardware to be sold online.  But after curating a daily selection of goods, the company is opening up its e-commerce shop …
Natasha Singer / New York Times:
California privacy bill to prohibit online services from collecting personal data on students  —  Scrutiny in California for Software in Schools  —  A leading California lawmaker plans to introduce state legislation on Thursday that would shore up privacy and security protections …
Tweets: @commonsense

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:
Fast, affordable law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
Equals:
Stop vibe coding analytics  —  Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards.  Build once, iterate for years.
Zoho:
Zoho Mail MCP: Make your inbox work for you  —  Maya is the head of operations at a 500-person B2B software company.  She's sharp, she's busy, and she starts every morning the same way-with her coffee, laptop, inbox.Not to work.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
 Anthropic's Mythos is Back, OpenAI Releases GPT 5.6, Apple's Price Increases
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Hard Fork:
 'The Daily' and 'The Opinions': How A.I. Is Changing Loneliness and Taste
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Upstarts Podcast:
 Writer's May Habib: Building AI Tools For Corporate 'Normal People' The Labs Leave Behind
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
 A Nick, Dick, and Paul Buffet!
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.
Great Chat:
 How much data do we actually want about our bodies?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
 AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
Add your podcast here
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:00 AM ET, February 20, 2014.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Matthew Belloni / Puck:
Although sources suggest Paramount wouldn't sell CNN to appease state regulators overseeing the WBD deal, it may save the company from a protracted legal battle

Washington Post:
The US Supreme Court paused a lower court order that would have forced ex-Fox News reporter Catherine Herridge to reveal a source or pay $800 a day in sanctions

Nate Raymond / Reuters:
The US federal judiciary plans to temporarily increase PACER fees from $0.10 to $0.12 per page for five years starting January 1, 2027, to fund a system upgrade

More News

Rich McCormick / The Verge:
T-Mobile offers $250 to upgrading BlackBerry users after manufacturer and fan outrage
Josh Lowensohn / The Verge:
Google I/O is back June 25-26 and you'll need to win a lottery to attend

Earlier Picks

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
Google Fiber chooses nine metro areas for possible expansion
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter