Facebook Buys Photo-Sharing Company Instagram
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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(PALO ALTO, Calif.) — Facebook has agreed to acquire the popular online photo sharing company Instagram, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Monday.
Zuckerberg did not disclose the purchase amount, but according to reports Facebook paid $1 billion.
“For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. “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.”
While Facebook is expected to integrate Instagram more closely with its web and app offerings, Zuckerberg also says that it will build and grow the Instagram app independently. “Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.”
Instagram, which was released for Android smartphones just last week, allows users to apply filters to images and then share them with others on the network and other social networks, including Twitter. Facebook stressed that it wouldn’t remove the feature that allows for sharing across other social networks.
The acquisition is Facebook’s biggest yet, but Zuckerberg says these types of deals won’t be frequent. “We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all,” he added.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio