Facebook has acquired the popular photo-sharing app Instagram for a massive $1 billion in a combination of cash and stock, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in a post on his Facebook Timeline on Monday. The sale is expected to close later this quarter, and will bring the nine-person staff of Instagram to the social network. “For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family,” Zuckerberg said in the post, “Now, we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.” Zuckerberg added that the company will be building on Instagram’s strengths and features and growing the app independently rather than “just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.” Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom echoed Zuckerberg’s statements on the Instagram company blog adding “We’re psyched to be joining Facebook and are excited to build a better Instagram for everyone.” It will be exciting to see what the acquisition leads to in the near future.
Source: mashable/slamx
