Facebook buying Instagram for $1 billion, won't cut off access to Twitter

Shawshank, VA 4/9/12 (StreetBeat) -- Facebook has agreed to purchase the photo sharing application Instagram for $1 billion.

The app lets users take photographs, add a filter, and then share them to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. After gaining 27 million users on the iPhone, it recently was made available on Android.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised to preserve Instagram's ability to share photos to multiple social networks beyond Facebook. "We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience," Zuckerberg said in a blog post. "We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook."

Zuckerberg didn't say how Facebook will make money on Instagram, which doesn't yet have advertising. He did note that it's the largest acquisition Facebook has ever made when measured by the size of its user base. Zuckerberg added that Facebook will try to boost Instagram's capabilities "by using Facebook's strong engineering team and infrastructure." The acquisition is expected to be completed before the end of June.

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Facebook

Northern, WI 2/2/2012 (Streetbeat) -- FaceBook (NYSE:FACE) -- I searched to see if (Nasdaq:FACE) was available and I am speculating that FaceBook will choose the symbol (NYSE:BOOK) and clear business at the NYSE vs Nasdaq. I really don't know I am guesssing like everyone else.

But knowing Mark Zuckerberg as I do.... he will do it his way...just like Sergey and Larry did at (Nasdaq:GOOG). Zuckerberg is a comet worth watching. I can't help watching the Social Network Movie over and over again. Facebook is raising 10 Billion in it's upcoming IPO, but Zuckerberg changed our Culture for- ever, for -always !!!!

As with almost anything crafted by lawyers and bankers, the 197-page prospectus that Facebook filed is filled with boilerplate legalese and mind-numbing numbers. But there were some juicy details in there, too.

Documents confirmed what everyone had been hearing: Facebook is very profitable and getting stronger. The company Mark Zuckerberg started in 2004 has seen its annual revenue soar from $777 million in 2009 to $3.7 billion last year. Facebook's earnings have grown at a similar rate too, ballooning from $122 million in 2009 to $668 million last year. Facebook ended 2011 with $3.9 billion in cash. That's a relatively small amount compared to the nearly $45 billion that Google has in the bank.

Facebook has become so addictive that more than half its audience — 483 million users — log in every day.
Facebook's revenue total disappointed some people who pored through the documents. One reason: The company generates about $4.39 in revenue per user. "That is a surprisingly low number," said University of Notre Dame finance professor Tim Loughran, who studies IPOs. Google's annual revenue of nearly $38 billion works out to more than $30 per user of its services.

"Facebook needs to find more ways to get revenue from their users," Loughran said. Facebook listed its most promising expansion opportunities as Brazil, Germany, India, Japan, Russia and South Korea. The company, based in Menlo Park, Calif., eventually hopes to make its service available in China if it can navigate rules requiring online content to be censored if the Chinese government considers it to be objectionable or obscene.
The IPO filing gives some clue when Facebook is likely to surpass 1 billion users. If it can add users at roughly the same pace as last year, Facebook should surpass the 1 billion mark this summer.

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