Ever wondered who owns the apps you most frequently use? Today, we are bringing to you the original owners of some of our most used websites and apps, along with their acquisition price and the companies that acquired them.
1. Twitter | $44 Billion
Twitter is one of the most-used apps out there, with a user base of around 400 million. It was founded by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone and Evan Williams and was launched on 15 July 2016. Twitter recently made headlines after Elon Musk acquired it for $44 billion.
2. Slack | $28 Billion
If you’re a working professional, chances are you would have used Slack at some point in time. Slack is a messaging program designed specifically for the workplace. It was developed by Slack Technologies and was launched to the public in 2013. Slack was acquired by Salesforce on January 1, 2021, for a value of approximately $27.7 billion.
3. LinkedIn | $26 Billion
LinkedIn has become the go-to platform for job seekers as well as a source of daily motivation. It was founded 18 years ago, in 2003 by Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly. In January 2011, LinkedIn filed its IPO. It was acquired by Microsoft in 2016 for $26.2 billion in Microsoft’s second-biggest acquisition to date.
4. WhatsApp | $19 Billion
Let’s face it, it’s impossible for us to imagine our lives without WhatsApp, even when there are so many messenger options available today. Despite those good-morning forwards, we still love WhatsApp. It was founded by Brian Acton and Jan Koum, former employees of Yahoo!, in 2009.
In February 2014, Facebook (now Meta) acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion in its largest acquisition to date.
Checkout: Whatsapp Tricks
5. Skype | $8 Billion
Skype was created by Niklas Zennström, Janus Friis and four Estonian developers. It was first released in August 2003. It has had an interesting history of acquisition. It was first acquired by eBay for $2.6 billion in 2005. Later in 2009, three companies bought 65% of Skype for $1.9 billion.
In May 2011, Microsoft bought Skype for $8.5 billion and used it to replace their Windows Live Messenger.
6. YouTube | $1.5 Billion
YouTube was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim. In 2006, 18 months after posting its first video and 10 months after its official launch, YouTube was bought by Google for $1.5 billion. Today, it’s the second-most visited website in the world, right after Google itself.
7. Instagram | $1 Billion
Instagram was founded in 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. Within two months of its launch, Instagram had 1 million registered users. On April 9, 2012, Instagram was acquired by Facebook for $1 billion in cash and stock.
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