Facebook on Monday announced it was closing its $19 billion deal to buy WhatsApp.
“We are looking forward to connecting even more people around the world, and continuing to create value for the people who use WhatsApp," reads a terse statement from the company about the closing. As part of the deal, WhatsApp cofounder Jan Koum will join Facebook's board of directors.
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The announcement comes three days after the deal cleared its last hurdle and received approval from the European Commission, which ruled that the purchase wouldn't hurt competition. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission gave the deal its regulatory blessing in April. Facebook announced its intention to buy WhatsApp in February.
Facebook has promised to run WhatsApp as a separate entity, and WhatsApp's founders are not planning to bring any advertising to the platform. WhatsApp currently claims more than 600 million users, the company announced in August. Because of the run-up in Facebook stock since the deal was announced, the deal is now worth $21.8 billion, as Re/code points out.
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