Facebook has gained around 2.41 billion active monthly users. Aside from its massive audience, strategic acquisitions have been crucial to its success.

So, how many Facebook companies have fueled the social network’s growth?

Over the years, Facebook has completed over 70 mergers and acquisitions, ranging from virtual reality and facial recognition initiatives to social platforms.

Although the costs of most of its acquisitions have been undisclosed, the prices that have been divulged range from $200,000 to $22 billion.

To distinguish Facebook’s products from the company itself, the social network is rebranding. Let’s delve into Facebook, Inc. subsidiaries to see what platforms are going to be affected by the company’s effort to update its branding. 

Fascinating Facebook Facts:

  • Facebook paid over $19 billion to acquire WhatsApp.
  • Since 2012, Facebook has spent over $22.4 billion to acquire its competition. 
  • Instagram is worth roughly $100 billion.
  • Facebook purchased Instagram for $1 billion.
  • Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus are Facebook’s top three companies.
  • Instagram had 13 employees when it was acquired by Facebook.
  • Facebook has acquired 72 companies since 2005.

Here we go, guys. Let's get started:

An Overview of the Mergers and Acquisitions by Facebook

Since the social network is relatively new, Facebook has a shorter acquisition history compared to other tech giants such as Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google. However, it’s acquired over 70 companies since 2005, pouring trillions of dollars into new investments and rival companies. 

1. Facebook has acquired 72 companies since 2005. 

So, what companies has Facebook bought?

It’s bought plenty of platforms in the tech space, including rival social networks, virtual and augmented reality initiatives, and messaging apps. More recently, it has made its first purchase in the blockchain space. 

2. Facebook’s total cost of acquisitions has reached $23,360,700,000.

Since Facebook’s beginnings, it has spent a total of $23,360,700,000 in acquisitions. That figure proves that the company has more buying power than small nations. As a matter of fact, the total cost of Facebook subsidiaries is greater than the GDP of the Maldives and Zimbabwe combined.

3. Since 2012, Facebook has paid over $22.4 billion in purchasing its competitors.

The multi-billion-dollar social media platform owns more apps than you probably realize. Since 2012, Facebook has paid more than $22.4 billion to buy its competitors, including the hyper-popular messaging app WhatsApp and photo and video sharing platform Instagram.Since the costs of some of its deals remain undisclosed, the figure is merely an estimate of the ones we know about. 

Which Social Media Is Owned by Facebook Today?

Mark Zuckerberg’s company has bought many of its rival social networking platforms over the years. It acquired ConnectU for $31 million in 2008, Friendster for $40 million in 2010, as well as the now-defunct social question and answer site Friend.ly for an undisclosed amount in 2011. It may have driven these competitors out of business, but it still owns other social networks aside from Facebook itself.

4. Evan Clark Williams owns 1.4 million of Twitter’s shares, making him the largest individual shareholder.

Does Facebook own Twitter?

No. Twitter is one of the leading social networks in the world; however, it isn’t a Facebook-owned company. Mark Zuckerberg’s company tried to acquire the micro-blogging platform twice, but both deals were unsuccessful.

Evan Clark Williams is Twitter’s largest individual shareholder, controlling 1.4 million shares. In addition to that, he owns 18.3 million shares through a family trust and Obvious Corp. CEO and co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, owns 16.6 million shares, making him the company’s second-largest individual shareholder.

5. Bessemer Venture Partners is Pinterest’s largest shareholder, controlling 13.1% of its shares.

Does Facebook own Pinterest?

No.

Bessemer Venture Partners is the company’s largest shareholder with 59.4 million shares or 13.1% of Pinterest, which is worth $951 million. Pinterest co-founder Ben Silbermann owns 11.4% of the company with 51.6 million shares. That is valued at $826 million. His partner Evan Sharp owns 2.1%, which is worth 9.5 million shares. Meanwhile, Pinterest’s first Chief Executive Officer Paul Sciarra owns 9.3% of the company with 42.4 million shares.

6. Snapchat declined a $3 billion deal offered by Facebook.

Is Snapchat Owned by Facebook?

No.

Snap Inc. owns Snapchat, so it’s not one of the Facebook, inc. subsidiaries. According to Forbes, co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy each own about 18% of the company, which is worth a whopping $3.7 billion. In 2013, Facebook offered Snapchat a $3 billion deal. CEO Evan Spiegel declined Facebook’s offer to purchase the then two-year-old Snapchat. 

7. Snapchat turned down Facebook’s offer twice. 

As they are two of the leading social networks in the world right now, some wonder if Facebook owns Snapchat and if the two belong in the same company. However, this is not the case. Like Twitter, Snapchat has received two offers in the last few years. Three years after its initial $3 billion deal, Facebook reportedly made a second offer, which Spiegel turned down again.

8. Instagram declined a $525 million deal offered by Twitter.

Does Facebook own Instagram?

Yes. 

Twitter offered to purchase Instagram for $525 million in both cash and stock merely three weeks before it sealed a $1 billion deal with Facebook. If Twitter landed the deal, the combination of both platforms would have given them an advantage in a world with ever-growing mobile internet usage. 

9. Facebook doubled Google’s bid on WhatsApp.

Facebook purchased WhatsApp by doubling Google’s bid on the app and spending nearly one-tenth of its market value in the process. The initial bid was $19.6 billion, but it eventually paid over $22 billion to seal the deal.

Facebook’s Instagram Acquisition

It’s no secret that Instagram has been crucial to Facebook’s massive growth. At that time, purchasing a company with no profit and with only a handful of employees might have seemed peculiar to say the least. But in the last few years, it has become more apparent that Facebook’s decision to invest in the company was a strategic move.  After struggling to transition from desktop to mobile, the acquisition of Instagram gave Facebook a leg up in this changing landscape.  

10. Instagram had 13 employees when Facebook purchased it.

Now that you know that Facebook purchased Instagram, you’re probably wondering, “Is Mark Zuckerberg the owner of Instagram?”Technically—he is.

Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t always the owner of the photo and video sharing network. Kevin Systrom co-founded it with Mike Krieger in San Francisco, California. They only had 13 employees when the Facebook company bought their platform in April of 2012 in cash as well as stock. 

11. Facebook purchased Instagram for $1 billion.

Facebook outbid other tech giants such as Twitter to acquire Instagram, offering the company nearly two times the amount that the micro-blogging platforms proposed.

So, how much did Facebook buy Instagram for?

Facebook purchased Instagram for $1 billion in 2012. Since Instagram had only 13 employees at that time, each one went home with a pretty hefty sum. All 13 employees shared about $100 million from the acquisition. Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger, who had 10% of the company’s shares, brought home $100 million, while CEO Kevin Systrom received approximately $400 million.

12. Instagram only had 30 million users when Facebook purchased it.

Purchasing Instagram was one of Facebook’s most important milestones. Even though Facebook bought Instagram when it had merely 30 million users and it wasn’t making any revenue, it helped improve its photo-sharing features. Not only that, it propelled its growth over the years.

13. Instagram is worth $100 billion.

Like Facebook, Instagram now generates profits through on-platforms ads. Currently, it’s estimated to be worth an astonishing $100 billion, if it was a standalone platform. That also means Facebook has seen a 100-fold return for its $1 billion purchase back in 2012. 

Facebook WhatsApp Acquisition

Multimillion-dollar deals aren’t uncommon in Silicon Valley. Startups get absorbed by giant companies all the time. In other words, an acquisition won’t always cause a commotion. Only a few have managed to do that successfully—Google’s purchase of Nest Labs for $3.2 billion or Apple’s procurement of Beats Electronics for $3 billion. Facebook surpassed all of those deals when it purchased a global text messaging app called WhatsApp in 2014.

14. Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion, making it the company’s largest purchase to date.

Initially, Facebook agreed to purchase the messaging app WhatsApp for $16 million—$4 billion in cash and $12 billion in shares. However, its initial bid is dwarfed by the final price they paid. Facebook added $3.6 billion as compensation to WhatsApp employees for staying on Facebook’s board. Racking up a total of $19.6 billion, it was the largest acquisition of the year, and it still is one of Silicon Valley’s largest tech buys.

15. WhatsApp had 450 million active users per month at the time of Facebook’s purchase.

When did Facebook buy WhatsApp?

The Facebook company purchased WhatsApp in February 2014. That year, they were seeing 450 million active users per month and around 315 million active users per day. Today, it has about 1.5 billion active users per month. In the first quarter of 2019, it had 500 million daily active users, which is a significant increase from two years ago. It only had 175 million daily active users in the first quarter of 2017.

16. WhatsApp’s revenue is expected to reach $5 billion by 2020.

According to Forbes, WhatsApp will yield revenue as high as $5 billion in 2020, averaging $4 per user. They expect it to contribute 9% to 10% of Facebook’s total revenue by then. 

What Are the Most Important Facebook Acquisitions?

In terms of acquisitions, Facebook’s strategy focuses on three core areas: acquiring new talent, purchasing burgeoning technologies, and buying rival companies.

17. Instagram is Facebook’s most valuable acquisition.

As with other Facebook, inc. subsidiaries, it’s hard to find an estimate of the revenue that Instagram generates now that it’s a part of Facebook, Inc. Some speculate that it generates more profit than the parent company.

According to Investopedia, Instagram has outperformed Facebook in terms of ad spend and impressions. Its massive growth is attributed to the widespread use of smartphones. 

18. WhatsApp is one of the top 3 companies owned by Facebook.

Facebook spared no expense in purchasing WhatsApp. Although it might not be one of its most profitable platforms, it is still one of its most important acquisitions.

However, its monetization model remains unclear, given that the app is a free text messaging and calling service. What’s more, it doesn’t support paid advertisements like Facebook and Instagram.

19. Facebook purchased a leading virtual reality platform called Oculus for $2.3 billion.

Apart from social networks, what does Facebook own? In 2014, Facebook purchased Oculus, a virtual reality platform, for $2.3 billion. Immersive technologies aren’t new, but they are becoming more mainstream each year.

These burgeoning technologies are expected to transform industries beyond the tech space, which makes the acquisition even more valuable. As artificial intelligence matures, it will help create fully immersive experiences. According to the latest artificial intelligence statistics, AI is growing at a rapid pace.

What Companies Does Facebook Own?

Facebook has acquired many startups over the years. However, they have been acquiring fewer and fewer companies each year. So far in 2019, they have only bought two startups, which is quite a significant decrease from last year.

20. Blockchain platform Chainspace was sold to Facebook for an undisclosed sum.

What does Facebook own in 2019?

Facebook’s first purchase of the year is a UK-based blockchain platform called Chainspace, which was focused on developing a smart contract system that could support payments and other transactions with the help of blockchain technology. It purchased the startup in February of 2019. However, it didn’t reveal the cost of the acquisition. Instead, Facebook quietly hired the brains behind the blockchain initiative. 

21. Facebook purchased GrokStyle for an undisclosed amount.

Another startup that Facebook acquired this year is called GrokStyle. It is a visual search and artificial intelligence platform, which helped consumers shop for furniture. 

Conclusion

Facebook has come such a long way from being a college-kid-only social networking app. The parent company as well as Facebook, Inc. Subsidiaries are some of the most popular platforms in the world. And now that you’ve read our fascinating stats and facts, feel free to go back to browsing cat memes on Facebook. Meow!