CNET – Facebook said Wednesday that it has agreed to acquire WhatsApp in a $19 billion cash and stock arrangement with the popular messaging application’s parent company. The announcement was made in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The deal for WhatsApp includes 183,865,778 shares of Facebook stock, valued at $12 billion, along with $4 billion in cash.
Once the acquisition closes, Facebook also promised to grant 45,966,444 restricted stock units (RSUs) to WhatsApp founders and employees, tacking on an additional $3 billion to the deal. The additional RSUs will vest over four years following closing.
“I’m excited to announce that we’ve agreed to acquire WhatsApp and that their entire team will be joining us at Facebook,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post published to Facebook. “Our mission is to make the world more open and connected. We do this by building services that help people share any type of content with any group of people they want. WhatsApp will help us do this by continuing to develop a service that people around the world love to use every day.”
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