Facebook Acquires Instagram

Facebook acquires instagram

Facebook acquired the photo-sharing service Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock. The two-year-old company makes photo-sharing applications that allow smartphone users to snap photos in a variety of retro styles and share them with friends on the service, over e-mail, or on a variety of other social networks.

The acquisition is more evidence that we live in “bubblicious” times: The startup makes no money and has 13 employees, all of whom work out of Twitter’s original offices in San Francisco’s South Park neighborhood. Of course, that didn’t matter to Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg: “For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests,” Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page this morning.