Acquisitions that reformed the social-verse

More or less, all leading social media platforms are dedicatedly inclining towards building businesses by making their platforms marketer-friendly. Larger digital portals swallowing thriving social platforms have becoming a norm to cultivate mutual benefit amongst the two.

Social Samosa takes up the decision to recapitulate through the major acquisitions that reformed the social-verse

Facebook and Whatsapp

The mobile messaging service app which ran independently until 2014 was acquired by Facebook for a whopping 19 Billion Dollars. Founders of Whatsapp Jan Koum and Brian Acton ran the app for 5 years without any interruptions like advertisements and sponsors, which worked well for the app.

While Facebook's investment wasn't justified at that point in time, it worked out well for the social media giant, giving them an entry in the mobile world.

Facebook and Instagram

The two competitive brands increased their ties after Zuckerberg’s Facebook bought the photo-sharing app Instagram for almost 1 billion dollar in 2012. The brands continue to work autonomously and how even after its acquisition.

Facebook and Little Eye Labs

In 2014, Facebook took over an Indian start-up based in Bangalore named Little Eye Labs that prepares software tools for scrutinizing the performance of Android apps. With this acquisition the social media giant aimed at taking its mobile expansion to the next level.  The business was sealed for around 10 to 15 Million Dollars.

Twitter and Vine  

Video sharing start-up Vine, was bought by twitter back in 2012 immediately after its existence in the market for just six months. Twitter took up the massive risk to acquire a company that had not even flourished itself.  Vine however, soon picked up with bloggers taking on the short video format to share quirky experiences. Brands were to follow soon.

LinkedIn and Slideshare

Both devoted to satisfy the professional market, Slideshare and LinkedIn were a match made in the social-verse and this coupling finally took place in yet again in 2012 when LinkedIn took over the professional content sharing platform for 119 Million Dollars in cash and stock.

LinkedIn and Pulse

Popular news reader for internet users, Pulse, was taken over by LinkedIn in 2013 for approximately 90 million dollars in an amalgamation of 90% stock and 10% cash.  LinkedIn a portal that is an elaborate resume giving deeper insights about the professional life of the user, shared that it acquired Pulse to develop its website to be a definitive professional publishing platform where users can come in to consume content and publishers to share content.

Google and YouTube

A decade-old tale which involved business between two massive platforms of their times, here we are discussing Google and YouTube. Back in 2006 Google took over YouTube for 1.65 billion dollars in all stock transaction making it the largest acquisition of those days.

Twitter and Periscope

Motivated to boost engagement and revenue, last year Twitter spent a massive 86.6 million dollars to get their hands on the live-streaming application Periscope. The acquisition was made even before the launch of the app which now competes with Meerkat.

Microsoft and LinkedIn

The most recent acquisition was doing rounds in the social town when Satya Nadella’s Microsoft overtook LinkedIn for 26.2 billion dollars or 196 dollars per share in cash. LinkedIn is maintaining its branding and along with that is being a part of Microsoft’s productivity.

These social media marriages have somewhere transformed the nature of each portal in return giving the audience an enhanced and comprehensive version to consume and communicate.