Facebook $22 billion WhatsApp deal buys $10 million in sales
The numbers are in for Facebook Inc.’s acquisition of mobile-messaging application WhatsApp Inc.: The social network paid $22 billion for a startup that generated $10.2 million in revenue last year. In a regulatory filing yesterday, Facebook disclosed WhatsApp’s financial results for 2012 and 2013. The messaging service, which reached 400 million active users in December, generated less than 3 cents in revenue for each one last year. By comparison, Facebook paid $55 per user when it acquired the company. WhatsApp’s net loss was $138.1 million for 2013. The valuation of the deal was already regarded as lofty, at 19 times projected sales. Still, the results illustrate how far Facebook has to go to get its money’s worth for the app, which generates revenue by charging 99 cents for subscriptions after a user’s first year. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said he’s in no rush to make money from WhatsApp, or Facebook’s other growing applications, until they ...