Whatsapp now officially belongs to Facebook

Eight months after announcing its intent to acquire
messaging giant WhatsApp, the deal has finally gone
through. Facebook announced the closing of the
deal with the SEC in the United States, and with the
European Commission in Europe. Since the deal was
announced for $19 billion, its price tag has actually
increased to a whopping $21.8 billion. This is in part
due to Facebook's rising stock price over the last
several months, Recode points out.
DON'T EXPECT WHATSAPP TO ABANDON ITS $1 / YEAR
BUSINESS MODEL
As WhatsApp officially joins the Facebook fold,
WhatsApp founder Jan Koum has joined Facebook's
board. He will also be paid just $1 per year like
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, according to filings, but
has been given a very hefty purse of Facebook shares to
hold on to. Facebook now has the right to do whatever
it wants with WhatsApp, though the company likely
won't make any dramatic changes to the service for a
long while. Facebook has pledged to operate its latest
acquisitions, from Instagram to Oculus, largely
independently — seeing as these companies were
already doing so well on their own. For example, don't
expect WhatsApp to abandon its $1 / year business
model or add advertisements any time soon.
"There would have been no partnership between our two
companies if we had to compromise on the core
principles that will always define our company, our
vision and our product," Koum said when the deal news
broke months ago. Facebook does, however, plan to its
new businesses to achieving larger scale, according to
Facebook. Like Mark Zuckeberg said on a recent
earnings call, it's all about ramping up Instagram,
Oculus, and now WhatsApp to reaching one billion
users. So why mess with something that isn't broke?