Contrary to the plethora of reports in the media that Facebook outbid Google for WhatsApp by offering an eye watering $19 billion, it appears that the popular cross platform messaging service didn’t receive a bid from Google in the first place. This comes directly from Android chief and Google SVP Sundar Pichai, so its safe to say that these comments have weight to them.
Pichai made this revelation while speaking at an event held as part of Mobile World Congress 2014. Calling WhatsApp an exciting product, Pichai says that “we never made an offer to acquire them.” Rumors first started to go around when word broke that Facebook is picking up the popular service for $19 billion. Google was claimed to have offered as much as $10 billion for the company.
It was also rumored that the reason why WhatsApp higher-ups didn’t go for Google’s deal because it didn’t come with the promise of a seat on the board, while Facebook’s did, along with an additional $9 billion. But as we know now, there wasn’t any truth to those rumors from the get go. Pichai did say that both companies had talked in the past over the possibility of working together more closely, but they never progressed to a stage where they would propose a buyout.
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