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How Facebook’s $19B WhatsApp acquisition stacks up in tech history

That’s a lot of Instagrams. 

Photo of Molly McHugh

Molly McHugh

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Facebook just shelled out $19 billion for WhatsApp. You probably don’t need to be told that that’s a crazy amount of money. 

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Of course, you can’t judge the startup world’s finances to the real world’s; it’s all relative. But relatively be damned, because even taking that into consideration, this is still a mind-boggling amount of money.

So let’s get a little perspective on what WhatsApp’s $19 billion price tag really means.

In 2012, Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion, so WhatsApp is worth 19 Instagrams.

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In 2013, Yahoo bought Tumblr for $1.1 billion, so WhatsApp is worth 17.3 Tumblrs.

In 2014, Google bought Nest for $3.2 billion, so WhatsApp is worth 5.9 Nests.

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In 2005, News Corp bought (the original) MySpace for $580 million, so WhatsApp is worth 32.8 (original) MySpaces.

In 2006, Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion, so WhatsApp is worth 11.5 YouTubes.

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In 2011, Microsoft bought Skype for $8.5 billion, so WhatsApp is worth 2.24 Skypes.

In 2012, Microsoft bought Yammer for $1.2 billion, so WhatsApp is worth 15.83 Yammers.

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In 2013, Microsoft bought Nokia for $7.2 billion, so WhatsApp is worth 2.64 Nokias.


In 2005, Yahoo bought Flickr for $35 million, so WhatsApp is worth 542.9 Flickrs. (Sorry, no way I’m making that image.)
 

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Photo via 401(K) 2013/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

 
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