Facebook Inc. Gets Edge in $100 Billion Market With WhatsApp

By Daniel Sparks – Feb 24, 2014 at 5:00PM

NASDAQ: META

Meta Platforms

Market Cap

$1,228B

Today's Change

(0.14%) $0.66

Current Price

$481.73

Price as of April 22, 2024, 4:00 p.m. ET

One app with 55 employees is turning a $100 billion market upside down -- and Facebook just stepped in on the opportunity.

It's hard to imagine any 55-employee business that's worth $19 billion -- no matter how disruptive it is. Yet that's the price -- including the value of common stock and restricted stock units -- that Facebook (META 0.14%) has agreed to pay for the five-year-old cross-platform messaging service, WhatsApp.

So where's the value in the deal? In the video below, Fool contributor Daniel Sparks suggests that investors look to two facts. First, WhatsApp's total messaging volume is already approaching the entire global telecom SMS volume. And just how valuable is this market? That prompts the second fact: according to The Verge, SMS is a $100 billion a year industry globally.

Check out the video below to hear more about how Facebook is positioning itself in this market with the acquisition of WhatsApp.

Daniel Sparks has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Facebook. The Motley Fool owns shares of Facebook. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.