Social networking giant Facebook Inc. said Monday that it has agreed to buy Instagram, a photo-sharing app for smartphones, for about $1 billion in cash and stock.
The deal is expected to close later this quarter.
This is the biggest ever acquisition for Menlo Park, California-based Facebook, which is in the process of going public in an initial public offering that will raise as much as $10 billion.
Instagram is a free photo sharing application that allows users to take a photo, apply a digital filter, then share it on a variety of social networking services. Instagram now has more than 30 million registered users.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, "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."
"We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram's strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook," Zuckerberg added.
by RTT Staff Writer
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