When Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion recently, nearly everyone was taken by surprise. Afterward, some reports hinted that Facebook wasn't the only company that had bid on WhatsApp. One such report stated that Google had made an attempt to acquire WhatsApp, but had been outbid by Facebook.
Until recently, that report was neither refuted nor confirmed by Google. Then on Tuesday at MWC 2014, Senior Vice President Sundar Pichai took to the stage to dispel rumors that Google had expressed interest in WhatsApp.
"Whatsapp was definitely an exciting product," he said. "We never made an offer to acquire them. Press reports to the contrary are simply untrue."
Pichai expressed admiration for the incredible accomplishments of WhatsApp, adding that the popular messaging service had in fact approached Google about working together more closely. Obviously, naught came of those talks, nor will it, since Facebook won WhatsApp for $19 billion last week.
Earlier reports indicated that Google had a deal with WhatsApp, which would have ensured that if WhatsApp was approached by another company with an offer, WhatsApp would let Google know. Similar reports stated that once Google knew that there was a company out there interested in acquiring WhatsApp, it made a $10 billion offer, which was trumped by Facebook's $19 billion offer. Others hinted that Google tried to dissuade WhatsApp from taking Facebook's offer.
Now that Pichai has blown that idea out of the water, it seems that Facebook's purchase of WhatsApp wasn't inspired by some crazy bidding war with Google. Still, it is impossible to know exactly what happened behind closed doors, so the speculation will no doubt continue.
Meanwhile, Facebook CEO MArk Zuckerberg talked up the WhatsApp purchase, assuring critics that $19 billion was an absolute steal. Many believed - or still believe - that Facebook was nuts to buy WhatsApp for that kind of money when previous estimates of the company's worth were set firmly at less than $2 billion.
"Already almost half-a-billion people love using WhatsApp for messaging and it's the most engaging app we've ever seen exist on mobile by far," Zuckerberg said.
Although many critics have warned that users don't necessarily mean easy revenue, Zuckerberg doesn't seem to worried about his very expensive new purchase.
"I could be wrong. It could be the one service that reaches 1 billion [users] and doesn't become valuable," Zuckerberg joked at MWC 2014.
Now that everyone is paying attention to WhatsApp, a lot of naysayers are changing their opinions and congratulating Zuckerberg on his big, risky move.
