Facebook Buys Instagram For $1 Billlion

Facebook announced today that it has bought Instagram, the popular mobile photo sharing service, for about $1 billion in cash and stocks.

Facebook has acquired several companies in the past, but according to Mark Zuckerberg, it has never purchased a company as big as Instagram. Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook:

“I’m excited to share the news that we’ve agreed to acquire Instagram and that their talented team will be joining Facebook. For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.”

Instagram has been downloaded more than 30 million times by iPhone users. The photo sharing app as recently released for Android where it gathered more than a million downloads in less than 24 hours.

Zuckerberg adds:

“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. 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.”

Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom said that Instagram won’t disappear into Facebook. He assured fans that the app “will still be the same one you know and love.” Systrom said:

“It’s important to be clear that Instagram is not going away. We’ll be working with Facebook to evolve Instagram and build the network. We’ll continue to add new features to the product and find new ways to create a better mobile photos experience.”