Is Whatsapp sold to Facebook

Is Whatsapp Sold To Facebook - WhatsApp cofounder Jan Koum, that marketed his company to Facebook in 2014, has been unloading Facebook supply at a constant clip under a prescheduled trading plan, with brand-new sales a number of times a month, given that February 2016.

Facebook Buys Whatsapp

So our asked Equilar, a firm that concentrates on evaluating exec compensation as well as company information, to help us examine all the Securities and also Exchange Payment filings related to Koum's sales for 2016.

Is Whatsapp Sold To Facebook


It turns out he's sold more than 22 million shares worth about $2.8 billion since January.

Facebook consented to get WhatsApp in February 2014 for over $19 billion in supply, and also the cost had risen to $22 billion by October, when the deal shut, thanks to Facebook's climbing supply rate. Koum possessed regarding 45% of the firm when he marketed it, Forbes estimates, which means his take on paper had to do with $10 billion. He also got a seat on Facebook's board.

At the end of 2015, according to Facebook's yearly proxy filing, Koum possessed over 60 million shares of common stock. He also had an additional 19 million restricted supply units, which vest gradually and also act as a motivation for him to remain up until November 2018.

Based on that vesting routine, it resembles he's made regarding 3 countless those RSUs up until now this year.

So in general, he's offered concerning one-third of his existing stake in Facebook this year.

Koum's supply sales come as WhatsApp continues to proliferate and as the firm is making changes to the solution that can open new moneymaking chances, but also runs the risk of estranging some users.

On Thursday, Facebook announced that WhatsApp was transforming its privacy policy for the very first time given that the purchase to allow Facebook to see the telephone number that a customer shares when they sign up for WhatsApp. Facebook can use this info to enable businesses to speak to individuals straight via WhatsApp, as they can currently do through Carrier, as well as will permit Facebook to reveal more appropriate advertisements to logged-in customers. Nonetheless, WhatsApp said it would certainly not share these phone numbers directly with customers.

WhatsApp passed more than than 1 billion month-to-month individuals in February and is one of the most popular conversation application in majority of the world, according to current stats from SimilarWeb.

Facebook had no discuss the sales, as it doesn't discuss individuals' investment choices.