Did Facebook Buy Whatsapp

Did Facebook Buy Whatsapp - WhatsApp cofounder Jan Koum, who marketed his business to Facebook in 2014, has been discharging Facebook stock at a consistent clip under a prescheduled trading plan, with brand-new sales numerous times a month, considering that February 2016.

Facebook Buys Whatsapp

So our asked Equilar, a firm that concentrates on evaluating exec payment and also company information, to aid us analyze all the Securities and also Exchange Commission filings related to Koum's sales for 2016.

Did Facebook Buy Whatsapp


It turns out he's offered greater than 22 million shares worth about $2.8 billion considering that January.

Facebook consented to buy WhatsApp in February 2014 for over $19 billion in supply, and the cost had increased to $22 billion by October, when the bargain shut, thanks to Facebook's increasing stock rate. Koum owned concerning 45% of the company when he marketed it, Forbes estimates, which implies his take on paper was about $10 billion. He likewise obtained a seat on Facebook's board.

At the end of 2015, according to Facebook's annual proxy declaring, Koum had over 60 million shares of ordinary shares. He likewise had an additional 19 million restricted stock devices, which vest over time and also act as a reward for him to remain until November 2018.

Based upon that vesting schedule, it appears like he's earned regarding 3 countless those RSUs until now this year.

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

Koum's supply sales come as WhatsApp remains to grow rapidly and also as the business is making changes to the service that might open new moneymaking opportunities, but additionally runs the risk of alienating some individuals.

On Thursday, Facebook revealed that WhatsApp was changing its privacy plan for the first time because the procurement to allow Facebook to see the phone number that a user shares when they register for WhatsApp. Facebook can use this details to enable organisations to get in touch with users straight through WhatsApp, as they can currently do through Messenger, as well as will certainly allow Facebook to show even more pertinent ads to logged-in customers. Nonetheless, WhatsApp stated it would not share these phone numbers straight with users.

WhatsApp passed more than than 1 billion monthly individuals in February and is one of the most popular chat app in majority of the globe, according to current stats from SimilarWeb.

Facebook had no comment on the sales, as it does not talk about peoples' investment decisions.