When this hit the internet last night I. was not happy. I don’t and won’t use Facebook but now it seems another great app succumbs to a large corporate.

Sadly, my kids use this app so for the foreseeable future I will still have to use it. I don’t like Facebook and don’t use it either so this is a disaster in the longer term.

How long before you will need a Facebook account to use the service or will Facebook just integrate it into their platform.

What’s your view?

Press release –

MENLO PARK, CALIF. – February 19, 2014 – Facebook today announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire WhatsApp, a rapidly growing cross-platform mobile messaging company, for a total of approximately $16 billion, including $4 billion in cash and approximately $12 billion worth of Facebook shares. The agreement also provides for an additional $3 billion in restricted stock units to be granted to WhatsApp’s founders and employees that will vest over four years subsequent to closing.

WhatsApp has built a leading and rapidly growing real-time mobile messaging service, with: Over 450 million people using the service each month; 70% of those people active on a given day; Messaging volume approaching the entire global telecom SMS volume; and Continued strong growth, currently adding more than 1 million new registered users per day.