Today, Facebook announced it has reached an agreement with the photo-sharing app, Instagram, to purchase the company for $1 billion. The payoff to the two-year-old company includes cash and Facebook stock.
The photo-sharing app will retain its name and will remain a stand-alone app separate from Facebook. According to Instagram’s CEO, Kevin Systrom, not much will change for the mobile-only social networking app.
“It’s important to be clear that Instagram is not going away,” Systrom wrote in his blog post. “The Instagram app will still be the same one you know and love. You’ll still have all the same people you follow and that follow you. You’ll still be able to share to other social networks. And you’ll still have all the other features that make the app so fun and unique.”
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, said the employees of Instagram will be joining his company, which is a good idea since this is the company’s first acquisition of a company this size. The photo-sharing company already had approximately 30 million iOS users before it joined Android last week. It gained 1 million more users in the first 24 hours after joining the Android Market, according to TechCrunch.
“This is an important milestone for Facebook because it’s the first time we’ve ever acquired a product and company with so many users,” Zuckerberg said in his blog post. “We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all.”
Some users don’t seem to be very happy about the situation and claim they are deleting their accounts with Instagram. Hacker News even posted an Instagram link that helps users delete their accounts.
Facebook has been receiving a lot of attention with its recent business decisions, including announcing earlier this year it would be going public by joining the New York Stock Exchange.
The acquisition of Instagram should be finalized by the end of Facebook’s current quarter.
“We’re looking forward to working with the Instagram team and to all of the great new experiences we’re going to be able to build together,” Zuckerberg said.
With or without a few upset Instagram users.
-Dustin Bass, @dbass_cmn
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