Thaindian News

MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA (BNO NEWS) -— Internet social network giant Facebook announced on Monday that it has reached an agreement to acquire popular photo-sharing app Instagram for roughly $1 billion.

According to the company, the $1 billion price is the total consideration for San Francisco-based Instagram, a mobile device app, in a combination of cash and shares of Facebook. “I’m excited to share the news that we’ve agreed to acquire Instagram and that their talented team will be joining Facebook,” said Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of 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,” he added.

Zuckerberg stated that the company needs “to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram’s strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.”

Zuckerberg also noted that the company is planning on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, as well as the ability to not share Instagrams on Facebook, if the user desires and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from Facebook friends.

The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close later this quarter.