Mark Zuckerberg has good news for Facebook users -- and maybe even for Instagrammers.
Facebook just bought Instagram for about $1 billion in cash and Facebook shares.
Whoa.
That's a big deal in Silicon Valley both because Instagram has been one of the hottest social networks of the last few years and because Facebook has never made an acquisition of a company this large. And if you believe Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, they may never make another purchase like this again.
"This is an important milestone for
Facebook because it's the first time we've ever acquired a product and
company with so many users," Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook, of course. "We don't plan on doing many more of these,
if any at all. But providing the best photo sharing experience is one
reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth
bringing these two companies together."
If you're a Facebook user, you should be ecstatic. One assumes that Instagram's vaunted photo filters, which make everything look a little cooler, will make their way into Facebook's photo tools and mobile app.
If you're an Instagram user, you may be wary. First, Instagram is a relatively closed network that operates very differently from Facebook. Sure, you can link it to Tumblr or Facebook or Twitter to publicly post photos, but you can also keep Instagram photos off the open web. That closedness allows me to post more intimate looks into my life than I might feel comfortable with on other platforms. Second, any time one big company acquires a smaller one, it's natural to worry that Facebook would absorb the Instagram tools and then shut the actual service down.