Facebook's acquisition of popular social photo-sharing application Instagram is finally official and the team behind Instagram will now move to Facebook's offices.
The deal was originally pegged at $1 billion in cash and shares. While the deal was expected to close in the second quarter, it is said to have only officially closed on 31 August - placing the value of the deal at $715.38 million (since Facebook's share price was at $18.06 at the time).
In a statement on the Instagram blog, the team behind the app said: “This is an exciting time for us - the community continues to grow and over five billion photos have now been shared through Instagram.”
Instagram added that now the deal has closed, the team will work with Facebook to improve the app for its users.
“While our team is making the short move to the Facebook offices, Instagram isn't going anywhere. The Instagram app and its features will stay the same one you know and love, and we'll keep working together to build a better Instagram for everyone.”
Schroepfer also reiterated that Instagram will continue as an independent product and Facebook will help grow the service with its engineering team and infrastructure.
"Instagram will continue to serve its community, and we will help Instagram continue to grow by using Facebook's strong engineering team and infrastructure. We also can't wait to work with the talented Instagram team to improve the mobile experience.”
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg first announced the acquisition in April, in what was quite an unexpected move at the time. Zuckerberg said: “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.”
At the end of July, Instagram passed the 80 million user mark, and was adding users at an average rate of 10 million per month. While five billion photos have been shared on Instagram to date, Facebook figures show that about 300 million photos are uploaded onto the social network every day.
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