Facebook is now the legal owner of WhatsApp, following a filing made with the SEC today. This is the final step in a process begun when Facebook announced its intent to acquire the messaging company in February of this year. The Facebook deal passed its final regulatory hurdle when it received EU approval to go ahead with the acquisition of WhatsApp last week.
In the filing, the company details the awarding of 177,760,669 shares of Facebook’s Class A common stock and $4.59 billion to WhatsApp stakeholders, plus 45,941,775 in restricted stock to WhatsApp employees to complete the deal. Koum will join Facebook’s board, and will also match Zuckerberg’s annual base salary of $1, without eligibility for the company’s bonus plan, though he does get a signing bonus of 24,853,468 restricted stock units as incentive for joining. Per the filing, Koum is joining Facebook with no fixed term of employment as part of the arrangement, but all indicators are that he wants to stick around to continue to build WhatsApp as a separate brand under the growing Facebook umbrella.
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