"I'm excited to share the news that we've agreed to acquire Instagram and that their talented team will be joining Facebook," Mark Zuckerberg just announced.
Forbes says Facebook is paying "approximately $1 billion in stock and cash" in what will be its "largest acquisition to date ... just weeks before its highly-anticipated IPO."
According to Facebook CEO Zuckerberg:
"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."
Zuckerberg also says "we plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook."
On Instagram's blog, CEO Kevin Systrom writes that "the Instagram app will still be the same one you know and love. You'll still have all the same people you follow and that follow you.You'll still be able to share to other social networks. And you'll still have all the other features that make the app so fun and unique."
According to TechCrunch, Instagram has 13 employees. Talk about a lucky number.
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