Facebook buys Instagram for an impressive $1 billion

In just about any language, $1 billion sounds great and when Facebook founder Marc Zuckerberg offered the sum to Instagram to buy the small San Francisco-based company, the amount must have been music to the ears of co-founders Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger and their 13 employees.

The announcement was made yesterday as Zuckerberg expressed his interest in the small yet highly popular photo sharing service that has only been in business for the past 15 months but in this short time has managed to rack up. According to Instagram, an impressive 30 million users including many celebrity fans are uploading close to 5 million pictures a day.

Talking about the acquisition, Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page, “This is an important milestone for Facebook because it's the first time we've ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don't plan on doing many more of these, if any at all. But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together. We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience,” as reported in a report by DailyMail UK.

Some analysts are saying it is possibly one of the most expensive business deals in history, but Instagram cannot be underestimated, as besides its very rapid ascent, the company recently announced that it would be offering an app to Android phones in addition to its current Apple app. And continuing in this same vein, Zuckerberg said that he intended to keep Instagram going as an independent unit, responding to critics who had said that Instagram had sold out, saying that he would hope to build upon Instagram’s features rather than incorporate them to Facebook.

“This is an important milestone for Facebook because it's the first time we've ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don't plan on doing many more of these, if any at all. But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love 'Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together. We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience,” said Zuckerberg.

Of course, while this might be a significant addition to Facebook’s portfolio, its founders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, are the real winners in this deal. According to details released, the pair will respectively net $400 million and $100 million, while a 10 percent stake of $100 million will, according to sources, be divided amongst the company’s 13 employees.