Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) acquisition binge has gone way too expensive since the start of 2014 as the social networker has acquired many newbies. First mega acquisition of the year was WhatsApp for enormous amount of $19 billion dollars, and founder Jan Koum was given an entry in the Facebook Board. After WhatsApp buyout CEO Mark Zuckerberg cleared that the company would not acquire more start-ups, but quickly went on to acquiring other attractive start-ups.
Acquisitions so far in 2014
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) overtook WhatsApp surprisingly outpacing Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL), who was also interested in buying the popular messaging app. WhatsApp was aware of its worth, and so Facebook had to pay a whopping $19 billion in stocks as well as cash for acquiring the app company. Unlike the promises made by the Facebook and Koum, the messaging app saw some changes right after the deal.
Just a month after acquiring WhatsApp, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) announced the acquisition of new virtual reality firm Oculus VR for around $2 billion after getting an approval of Federal Trade Commission (FTC). There have been rumors that the social networker fully analyzed the competition and the upcoming products before finally acquiring the virtual reality headset maker.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is well aware of the fact that the tech firms are increasingly penetrating into the health sector to get the benefit of an early starter. These companies, particularly Apple are aiming to build devices that will be efficient for the best surgeons of the world. Following the trend, recently Facebook bought ProtoGeo app, a fitness tracker app for an undisclosed amount.
Facebook offering more to mobile users
The largest social networking site, recently showed higher than expected earnings with an increase of 72% in the revenue and posting three times bigger profits. The share price of the company has almost doubled in less than a year. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) can draw major benefits from the acquisition of apps like Moves, which helps in gathering data. The strongest point of Facebook is that it has the knowledge of its users; helping the company to sell targeted advertisements. Another interesting feature recently added by Facebook for its mobile app is that the users get notifications when they are near other friends, once the Facebook user activates this feature friends can then track the other friends who are near to them even when the app is switched off.
