Co-founder and CEO of Facebook (with a net worth of $107B) Mark Zuckerberg, is a self-made man who founded Facebook in 2004. Mark Zuckerberg owns 94 companies including WhatsApp, Instagram, Oculus VR, etc.
Facebook, or should we say, “The Facebook,” was launched by Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004. Initially created solely for college students attending specific schools, it reached one million users in just ten short months after its inception. Eighteen years later, in 2022, Facebook (now named Meta) has nearly 2.9 billion monthly users! This number doesn’t even include Facebook’s acquisitions like WhatsApp and Instagram (to name a few).
During this wave of extreme growth, Mark Zuckerberg has acquired 94 companies to date. Facebook’s largest acquisition has been WhatsApp Messenger, which they purchased for $19 billion in February 2015. Other notable acquisitions include Instagram (purchased for $1 billion in April 2012) and Oculus Virtual Reality (purchased for $2 billion in March 2014).
Some of Facebook’s smaller purchases include the domain fb.com, which it bought for $8.5 million in November 2010, and the hosting and sharing platform Drop.io, which it purchased for $10 million in October 2010. Just a few million dollars each, which is no big deal for Facebook, whose IPO started out at $38 per share (in May 2012), and sits at roughly $93 per share in mid/late-August 2015.
However, in January 2018, Facebook acquired confirmo.io, a Government-issued ID verification platform based in Boston, USA and during July purchased Bloomsbury AI($30,000,000) and RedKix($100,000,000). The year 2019 saw just two purchases, Chainspace, and GROKSTYLE, during February. CTRL-Labs, with a value rumored to be between 500 Million and a Billion, Giphy for 400 Million, and Kustomer for 1 Billion Dollars are some of the big-ticket purchases made by Facebook between September 2019 and November 2020.
2021 saw Facebook acquiring Downpour Interactive, Unit 2 Games, BigBox VR, AI.Reverie and Within. Facebook has not disclosed the cost at which these acquisitions were done.
Let’s dive into the infographics!
You may have noticed on the Facebook Acquisitions Infographic that Facebook has made several big and small acquisitions. For some companies, the cost of acquisition is not yet disclosed.
Let’s look at the top 5 Facebook Acquisitions and highlight the intention behind buying these companies. Now when Facebook changed its parent company name to Meta – we realize why Facebook acquired Oculus VR in 2014.
Founded by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger in 2010, Instagram’s primary focus was to feature photographs, especially those taken on Apple mobile devices. Within months of its launch, Instagram saw a rapid rise in user base, and they began luring a ton of investors. According to reports, Twitter wanted to acquire Instagram and made a formal offer of around $500 million in stock, but Systrom refused to accept the offer. Sensing the growing popularity of this American photo and video sharing social networking service, in April 2012, Facebook Inc. acquired Instagram for approximately US$1 billion in cash and stock.
Brian Acton and Jan Koum launched WhatsApp in 2009 after leaving their job at Yahoo!.
WhatsApp is Facebook’s most important acquisition, and it is over 20 times larger than its Instagram acquisition, making quite the splash in 2012. Why did Facebook acquire WhatsApp for such a whopping amount? The answer is Whatsapp’s user growth. So, Facebook noticed both vulnerability and opportunity in WhatsApp.
3. Oculus VR
If you are into gaming, you must be familiar with virtual reality hardware and software company – Oculus VR. This virtual reality gaming company Oculus VR makes virtual reality headsets. One of the significant and earlier successes of Oculus was the VR headset Oculus Rift, which wowed the industry.
The company was founded in July 2012 by Palmer Luckey, Brendan Iribe, Michael Antonov, and Nate Mitchell in Irvine, California.
Meta’s purchase of Oculus VR gave it an instant presence in the virtual reality market.
4. Onavo
Onavo was an Israeli mobile web analytics company.
Guy Rosen and Roi Tiger established Onavo in 2010. In October 2013, Onavo was acquired by Facebook; it is believed that Facebook planned to use Onavo’s analytics platform to monitor competitors. This allowed Facebook to make various business decisions, including its 2014 acquisition of WhatsApp.
5. Beluga
Beluga is a famous group messaging service that Facebook acquired when it was only eight months old. Founded in July of 2010, Beluga’s technology caught Facebook’s attention.
We have listed down all companies with the year and cost of acquiring them. Facebook has not disclosed the cost for which they acquired many of these companies.
AboutFace was acquired on August 2005 – $200 K
Parakeya was acquired on July 19, 2007
ConnectU was acquired on June 23, 2008 – $31 Million
FriendFeed was acquired on August 10, 2009 – $47.5 Million
Octazen was acquired on February 19, 2010
Divvyshot was acquired on March 2, 2010
Friendster acquired on May 13, 2010 – $40 Million
Chai Labs acquired on August 15, 2010 – $10 Million
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Hot Potato acquired on August 20, 2010 – $10 Million
Drop.io was acquired on October 29, 2010 – $10 Million
FB.com domain name acquired on November 15, 2010 – $8.5 Million
Rel8tion acquired on January 25, 2011 – Undisclosed
BELUGA was acquired on March 2, 2011 – Undisclosed
Snaptu was acquired on March 20, 2011 – $70 Million
RecRec acquired on March 24, 2011 – Undisclosed
DayTum was acquired on April 27, 2011
Sofa was acquired on June 9, 2011
MailRank was acquired on June 9, 2011
Push Pop Press acquired on August 2, 2011 – Undisclosed
Friend.ly acquired on October 10, 2011 – Undisclosed
Strobe acquired on November 8, 2011 – Undisclosed
Gowalla was acquired on December 2, 2011
Tagtile was acquired on April 13, 2012 – Undisclosed
Glancee acquired on May 5, 2012 – Undisclosed
Lightbox.com was acquired on May 15, 2012 – Undisclosed
Karma was acquired on May 21, 2012 – Undisclosed
Face.com was acquired on June 18, 2012 – $100 Million
Spool acquired on July 14, 2012 – Undisclosed
Acrylic Software acquired on July 20, 2012 – Undisclosed
Threadsy was acquired on August 24, 2012 – Undisclosed
Atlas was acquired on February 28, 2013 – Less than $100 Million
Osmeta was acquired on March 2013
Hot Studio was acquired on March 14, 2013
Spaceport was acquired on April 23, 2013
Parse was acquired on April 25, 2013 – $85 Million
Monoidics was acquired on July 18, 2013
Jibbigo was acquired on August 12, 2013
Onavo was acquired on October 13, 2013
SportStream was acquired on December 17, 2013
Little Eye Labs was acquired on January 8, 2014 – $15 Million
Branch acquired on January 13, 2014 – $15 Million
WhatsApp acquired on February 19, 2014 – $19 Billion
Oculus VR was acquired on March 25, 2014 – $2 Billion
Ascenta was acquired on March 27, 2014 – $20 Million
Liverail was acquired on August 14, 2014 – $500 Million
ProtoGeo Oy was acquired on April 24, 2014 – Undisclosed
Pryte was acquired on June 2014 – Undisclosed
PrivateCore acquired on August 7, 2014 – Undisclosed
WaveGroup Sound acquired on August 26, 2014 – Undisclosed
Wit.ai was acquired on January 6, 2015 – Undisclosed
Quickfire acquired on January 8, 2015 – Undisclosed
TheFind acquired on March 14, 2015 – Undisclosed
Surreal Vision acquired on May 26, 2015 – Undisclosed
Pebbles acquired on July 16, 2015 – $60 Million
Masquerade acquired on March 9, 2016 – Undisclosed
Two Big Ears acquired on March 23, 2016 – Undisclosed
Nascent Objects acquired on September 19, 2016 – Undisclosed
Infiniled acquired on October 10, 2016 – Undisclosed
CrowdTangle acquired on November 11, 2016 – Undisclosed
Faciometrics acquired on November 16, 2016 – Undisclosed
Ozlo was acquired on July 31, 2017 – Undisclosed
Fayteq was acquired on August 2017 – Undisclosed
tbh(app) acquired on October, 2017 – Undisclosed
confirm.io acquired on January 23, 2018 – Undisclosed
Bloomsbury AI was acquired on July 2018 – $30,000.000
RedKix acquired on July 26, 2018 – $100,000,000
Vidpresso was acquired on August 13, 2018 – Undisclosed
Chainspace acquired on February 2019 – Undisclosed
GROKSTYLE acquired on February 8, 2019 – Undisclosed
Sonics acquired on March, 2019- Undisclosed
Servicefriend acquired on September, 2019 – Undisclosed
CTRL-labs acquired on September,2019 – undisclosed, but reportedly between $500 million and $1 billion
Packagd acquired on September, 2019 – Undisclosed
Beat Games acquired on November, 2019 – Undisclosed
PlayGiga was acquired on December, 2019 – $70,000,000
Sanzaru Games acquired on February 2019 – Undisclosed
Scape Technologies on February 2020 – 40 Million
Giphy acquired on May, 2020 – 400 Million
Mapillary acquired on June, 2020 – undisclosed
Lemnis Technologies was acquired on September,2020 – Undisclosed
Kustomer acquired on November, 2020 – 1 Billion
Downpour Interactive acquired on April 30, 2021 – Undisclosed
Unit 2 Games acquired on June 4, 2021 – Undisclosed
BigBox VR acquired on June 11, 2021 – Undisclosed
AI. Reverie acquired on October 11, 2021 – Undisclosed
Within acquired on October 29,2021 – Undisclosed
Facebook needs no introduction, neither does Mark Zuckerberg. However, if you are reading this blog, you may be keen to learn exciting facts about him, companies owned by Mark Zuckerberg, his lifestyle, his family, etc.
What do you feel when you hear the name, Mark Zuckerberg?
Inspired?? People always look up to entrepreneurs who have attained success early in their lives. From their everyday schedules to their life mantras, it is always mesmerizing to understand their journey to success.
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg was born May 14, 1984, in White Plains, New York, U.S. His mother Karen practiced as a Psychiatrist and his father Edward Zuckerberg was a dentist. He and his three sisters (Arielle, Randi, and Donna) were raised in a Reformed Jewish household in Dobbs Ferry, New York. His great-grandparents were Jewish emigrants from Austria, Germany, and Poland.
Mark Zuckerberg has been married to his wife Priscilla Chan since 2012. Priscilla Chan is an American philanthropist and a former pediatrician. They have two daughters – Maxima and August.
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1. At the age of 12, Zuckerberg created an instant messaging program that he called ZuckNet to help his father know when patients arrived. A brilliant child!!
2. Mark Zuckerberg IQ is estimated at 152, which is considered as a genius and in the top 0.1% of the population in the world.
3. While Zuckerberg and his wife Dr. Priscilla Chan are now parents and major philanthropists, they met each other for the first time at a party while waiting in line for the bathroom.
4. Why does he wear the same gray t-shirt every day? – In an interview, he said he believes that he needs to spend his energy on matters that help the community and not on things – choosing which shirt to wear. However, his signature T-shirt costs $300 to $400.
5. Did you know the reason Facebook is blue is because Zuckerberg is colorblind? Zuckerberg is red-green colorblind, which means the color he can see the best is blue.
1. Al Pacino was the first face on Facebook.
Wondering who Al Pacino is?
Oscar-winning actor Al Pacino acted in films like ‘The Godfather,’ ‘Dog Day Afternoon,’ ‘Dick Tracy’ and ‘Scent of a Woman’.
3. Facebook’s user base grows at a rate of 8 people per second.
4. Cristiano Ronaldo is the most followed person on Facebook.
5. Facebook is not in China, they have blocked Facebook since 2009.
6. Facebook has an upside-down English option for its users in its language options. Try this out today!!
Zuckerberg started Facemash as a platform where the Havard students could compare faces and pick “who’s hotter.”
Not surprisingly, this platform didn’t impress Harvard’s administrators.
2. Facebook is the third most popular site globally, next only to Google and YouTube.
This can be a tip for marketers and content creators to always have subtitles for their videos.
5. The average number of friends users have in their Facebook account is 338.
FAQ
Downpour Interactive acquired on April 30, 2021 – Undisclosed
Industry: Video game developer
Website: https://www.downpourinteractive.com/
Location: USA, San Francisco, California
Unit 2 Games acquired on June 4, 2021 – Undisclosed
Website: https://unit2games.com/
Location: UK, Leamington Spa
BigBox VR acquired on June 11, 2021- Undisclosed
Industry: VR Game
Website: https://www.bigboxvr.com/
Location: USA, Seattle, Washington
AI. Reverie acquired on October 11, 2021 – Undisclosed
Industry: Artificial Intelligence
Website: https://aireverie.com/ (Page may be not found-404 Error)
Location: USA, New York, NY, New York
Within acquired on October 29, 2021 – Undisclosed
Industry: Virtual Reality
Website: https://www.with.in/
Location: USA, Los Angeles, California
Facebook Inc. now known as Meta owns 94 companies. The major Facebook acquisitions are Instagram, Whatsapp, Oculus VR.
Facebook has a habit of acquiring everything that can be a threat to them in the future. Instagram which is a very popular photo and video-sharing social networking platform was launched in 2010 and was a good threat to Facebook. This big Facebook acquisition happened on 9th April 2012 for 1 Billion.
Co-founder and CEO of Facebook (with a net worth of $107B) Mark Zuckerberg, is a self-made man who founded Facebook in 2004. Mark Zuckerberg owns 94 companies including WhatsApp, Instagram, Oculus VR, etc.
What companies does Mark Zuckerberg own?
Mark Zuckerberg-Class A shares and Class B shares of 392,71 million — 11,92 million (53.3 percent voting power)
Jan Koum – Class A shares of 14.2 million
Saverin Eduardo – Class A shares 6.1 million and Class B shares 47.2 million
Dustin Moscow — Class B shares of 48.9 million
Sheryl Sandberg — 1.5 million Class A and Class B shares
Facebook purchased WhatsApp in February 2014 for an approximate total of $16 billion. Facebook saw both vulnerability and opportunity in WhatsApp and acquired it for a whopping $19B in 2014.
Facebook (the parent company) has changed its name to Meta, in reference to the metaverse, which combines social media with virtual and augmented reality — so Facebook focuses on metaverse for their future; hence the name change is required. Otherwise, they will represent themselves only as a social media platform, but they are evolving into something beyond social media platforms.
Social Media Means
Photo: Karolina Grabowska
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