Why Did Facebook Buy Whatsapp

Why Did Facebook Buy Whatsapp - WhatsApp cofounder Jan Koum, that sold his business to Facebook in 2014, has actually been discharging Facebook supply at a constant clip under a prescheduled trading plan, with new sales several times a month, given that February 2016.

Facebook Buys Whatsapp

So our asked Equilar, a business that specializes in assessing exec compensation as well as corporate data, to help us examine all the Stocks and Exchange Commission filings pertaining to Koum's sales for 2016.

Why Did Facebook Buy Whatsapp


It ends up he's marketed more than 22 million shares worth roughly $2.8 billion given that January.

Facebook accepted purchase WhatsApp in February 2014 for over $19 billion in supply, as well as the rate had actually gone up to $22 billion by October, when the offer closed, thanks to Facebook's rising stock cost. Koum owned regarding 45% of the business when he sold it, Forbes estimates, which implies his take on paper was about $10 billion. He additionally got a seat on Facebook's board.

At the end of 2015, according to Facebook's annual proxy filing, Koum possessed over 60 million shares of common stock. He likewise had one more 19 million limited stock units, which vest gradually and also serve as a reward for him to stay till November 2018.

Based on that vesting timetable, it looks like he's made about 3 countless those RSUs so far this year.

So on the whole, he's offered regarding one-third of his present risk in Facebook this year.

Koum's supply sales come as WhatsApp remains to grow rapidly and as the business is making changes to the solution that can open up new moneymaking chances, however also takes the chance of alienating some individuals.

On Thursday, Facebook revealed that WhatsApp was altering its personal privacy policy for the first time considering that the purchase to permit Facebook to see the telephone number that an individual shares when they enroll in WhatsApp. Facebook can use this information to permit businesses to speak to customers straight via WhatsApp, as they can currently do via Carrier, as well as will permit Facebook to show even more pertinent advertisements to logged-in customers. However, WhatsApp said it would not share these contact number directly with customers.

WhatsApp passed greater than than 1 billion month-to-month individuals in February and also is the most prominent conversation application in more than half of the world, according to recent statistics from SimilarWeb.

Facebook had no discuss the sales, as it does not comment on peoples' investment choices.