Facebook has closed the acquisition of WhatsApp for nearly $22bn, at $3bn more from February when the deal was announced.
The rise in Facebook’s stock value in recent months has increased valuation of the transaction.
WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum will continue to serve as its CEO in addition to being a member in Facebook’s board. Koum will receive around $2bn in the form of 24.9 million restricted stock units of Facebook as an incentive to stay with the company.
Koum will join the ranks of Mark Zuckerberg and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to receive an annual salary of $1.
The social media giant paid $4.59bn in cash and 178 million shares of its stock to WhatsApp, and also gave 46 million of grants in restricted stock units to WhatsApp employees.
Facebook previously bought Instagram for nearly $715m.
