Facebook has constantly been expanding to make sure that they stay relevant in the market and can continue to dominate social media websites. Over the past couple of years Facebook has been acquiring a lot of smaller companies that contribute to the different divisions the company is a part of. Certain companies had built up a very strong user base when Facebook decided to purchase them, which ended up costing them a huge amount. Here are the largest Facebook acquisitions to date.
5. Friendster Patents – $40,000,000
Friendster is a social gaming website that was once a social networking site. The company owned a large amount of important and valuable patents relating to social networking that Facebook wanted to purchase. In 2010, Facebook ended up spending $40 million to acquire 18 patents from Friendster to help further their social media expansion.
4. FriendFeed – $47,500,000
FriendFeed is a company that offers a real-time feed aggregator that updates social media feeds and other RSS feeds. The company was purchased by Facebook in 2009 for $47,500,000 and had a lot to do with Facebook’s live news feeds and working on ways to allow users to stay constantly updated.
3. Instagram – $1,000,000,000
In 2012, Facebook made one of their first notably large purchases when they bought Instagram for $1 billion. Instagram had grown to become a massive social media app based around editing pictures with different filters and sharing them with a network of friends on the app. This was a major acquisition for Facebook because it cost them so much, but paid off in the long run because the app is still sustained and growing.
2. Oculus VR – $2,000,000,000
Oculus VR is a company that has been working very hard to create devices that create virtual reality. There first product is still in development and is a headset that could be used for a ton of things. A main use would be for gaming and allowing players to immerse themselves more into the game with a first person perspective while playing.
1. WhatsApp – $19,000,000,000
WhatsApp is a messaging service that allows users to quickly send and receive messages across platforms that operates through the internet. It is the same type of messaging services as Apple’s iMessage and was one of the top messaging apps used for friends to text one another from iPhone to Android and so on. In February of this year, Facebook purchased WhatsApp for a massive $19 billion and is their largest acquisition to date.
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