Facebook, the social networking platform that has changed the way the world communicates and makes friends, has had a very successful journey from the days of being a way to connect with likeminded people on campus. It has grown into a behemoth and has a market capitalization of $536 billion and is one of the largest companies in the world. It was started n 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg along with friend Eduardo Saverin at Harvard. Initially, it was called FaceMash.
Facebook turned the corner in 2010 when it recorded its first profitable year, and in 2012 it launched its first IPO. Facebook has seen mergers and acquisitions as a way to diversify its portfolio and expand. Here is a look at some of the well-known acquisitions it has made.
It acquired Instagram, the photo and video sharing app in 2012 for $1billion, and now it is worth $100 billion. It is said that the purchase of Instagram turned the tide for Facebook. It is believed that Instagram generates maximum revenue in advertising for the company.
The social media company acquired the messaging and calling service in 2014 for $19 billion. WhatsApp is available globally and has a user base of nearly 1.5 billion. It is not clear how the company monetizes the chat app.
Oculus VR
It was purchased for $2.3 billion in 2014. Oculus VR is a leader in virtual reality, and its most famous product is Oculus Rift. It is a VR headset used in gaming. Its latest product is Oculus Go, which does not need to be attached to any gaming console. Oculus VR itself acquired Surreal Vision to expand its gaming vision. Surreal specializes in 3D mapping of surroundings.
FriendFeed
FriendFeed was purchased in 2008 for $47.5 million. It was one of the first few companies that Facebook invested in. Friendfeed was an aggregator of information drawn from social media sites, blogs, articles, and RSS feeds. FriendFeed has ceased operations, but its many features can be seen on Newsfeed.
Ascenta
Ascenta was acquired in 2014 for less than $20 million. It is said that Facebook was interested in the engineers working for the company rather than the company itself. It is a drone manufacturing company and fits into Facebook’s plans of taking the internet into the remotest corners of the world.
LiveRail
It was acquired in 2014. The app is a monetization platform for video publishers. Its acquisition price is not clear and guesstimates are between $400 million to $500 million. LiveRail developed a Checkpoint technology that filters out ads for alcohol, tobacco, and other age-limited products from children’s accounts.
Other noteworthy acquisitions of Facebook include:
ProtoGeo: Acquired in 2014, a health and fitness company for an undisclosed amount.
Vidpresso: In 2018, Facebook acquired Vidpresso, a video software company, for an undisclosed sum.
Redkix: A team messaging app was purchased for $100 million in 2019.
Mapillary: As of June 2020, Facebook bought street-level imagery startup Mapillary in a bid to rival Google and Apple.
Facebook has a long list of companies that it has acquired in its 15 years of operations. The last count put the number at 56. This number is sure to increase in the future.
