According to the latest scuttlebutt, Facebook's $16-19 Billion dollar buyout of WhatsApp wasn't the little developers first gigantic offer. Supposedly, Google was the first to offer to buyout WhatsApp for an exorbitant amount, to the tune of $10 Billion. As we can see from the results, WhatsApp had the guts to turn down that offer, and instead ended up with Facebook's much bigger offer.
The report indicates that there were two main reasons why the WhatsApp CEO, Jan Koum, turned down Google's offer. One was that Google was offering less cash than Facebook. The other was because Google didn't offer Koum a seat on its board of directors as Facebook did.
There's even more intrigue to this interesting drama. Supposedly, Google offered to pay WhatsApp millions of dollars just to have the company let Google know when it entered into talks with other companies. This offer was also rejected by Koum.
Here's a quote with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reflecting on the purchase,
Apparently, this little app is such a hot commodity because it is great at connecting people in emerging markets. Still, you have to wonder if the folks in Silicon Valley have gone crazy spending these ridiculous amounts of money to get these small startups...
Source: BGR