By now we have all heard that Facebook has agreed in principle to buy WhatsApp, the most popular cross platform messaging service out there, for an eye watering sum of $19 billion in cash and stock. If the deal falls through for some reason, Facebook has promised a cash breakup fee of $1 billion. Since the announcement was made, many figures were thrown around. An investor is set to rake in billions, while existing WhatsApp employees will get millions on part of the $3 billion restricted Facebook stock they get. There’s another number that’s equally interesting. Apparently Google was courting WhatsApp as well, and it even offered $10 billion to buy it.
You know what’s better than $10 billion? $19 billion. I know, this seems like a dialogue straight out of The Social Network, but apparently money wasn’t the only factor that deterred WhatsApp higher-ups from making the deal. According to Fortune, which claims to have heard from two different sources, Google’s buyout bid didn’t come with the promise of a seat on the board, while Facebook’s did. So its quite evident why the company turned Google down, who doesn’t like an extra $9 billion? It warrants mentioning here that the sources haven’t revealed if discussions with both suitors were taking place more or less at the same time, Google and WhatsApp haven’t commented on this report.