Over the past four years, Facebook has acquired about 20 companies. Most of the acquisition amounts were never disclosed.
Facebook's S-1 reveals how many shares of Class A and Class B stock it issued for each acquisition. It also says it spent $68 million to acquire startups in 2011.
The S-1 doesn't say which companies were given which shares, but Inside Facebook took a good stab at matching the startups up with the issued stock dates. We also looked at Facebook's acquisition timeline and made some guesses of our own.
According to the filing, Drop.io may have received close to $40 million in stock, not the $10 million that was initially reported. FriendFeed was given ~ $330 million in Facebook stock.
Please keep in mind that the following matches are educated guesses. They also do not include any cash Facebook may have paid the startups. If you know for a fact which company belongs to which statement, please email ashontell@businessinsider.com.
Here's how much Gowalla, Drop.io, FriendFeed and others really made selling to Facebook >>
*Note: Pursuit and RecRec weren't actual business acquistions, so they were not included in this list, even though most of their teams were bought/hired by Facebook.
Also, the following numbers do not include cash-based compensation or other bonuses. Class B shares and Class A shares are issued to acquired companies, and they were valued at $29.73 per share in late December. Inside Facebook notes that one Class B share is equal to a Class A share, but Class A shares have one-tenth the voting power.
In August 2009 Facebook issued 11,052,955 shares, now worth ~ $330 million, probably to buy FriendFeed
FriendFeed was: A feed that gives users a stream of news about what their friends are doing from 23 other networks like Digg, YouTube and Flickr.
Founders: Paul Buchheit (creator of Gmail and the motto, "Don't be evil"), Bret Taylor, Jim Norris, Sanjeev Singh
Date acquired: August 10, 2009
Investors: Benchmark Capital
Sold for: When news of the acquisition broke, Zuckerberg was said to have "really wanted Bret on staff." The rumored amount was for $50 million.
According to the S-1, Facebook issued 11,052,955 shares of Class B common stock to "ten individuals and one entity in connection with an acquisition of all the outstanding shares of a company." Given the time frame, that company was likely FriendFeed, and the shares are now worth an estimated $328,604,352.
Source: Paidcontent, Inside Facebook
In May 2010, Facebook issued 3,625,000 shares, now worth ~ $110 million, probably to buy Friendster's patents
Friendster was: A social networking site that was acquired by MOL Global in 2009 for $26.4 million and it became a social gaming site.
Founders: Gordon Mohr, Jonathan Abrams
Date acquired: reported on August 4, 2010
Investors: Benchmark Capital, Kleiner Perkins
Sold for: Facebook's S-1 states: "On May 18, 2010, we issued 3,625,000 shares of our Class B common stock as consideration to a company in connection with our purchase of patents from the company. Given the time frame and the fact that it wasn't written as an acquisition, this statement could be referring to the purchase of the 18 patents Friendster owned. Those shares are worth an estimated $107,771,250.
Friendster owned all of the following (via Wikipedia):
- System, method and apparatus for connecting users in an online computer
- Method of Inducing Content Uploads in a Social Network
- System and Method for Managing Connections in an Online Social Network
- Compatibility Scoring of Users in a Social Network
- Method for sharing relationship information stored in a social network
In June 2010, Facebook issued 238,000 shares, now worth ~ $7 million, probably to buy ShareGrove...
ShareGrove was: A smaller social network that creates private groups for friends and families to share content.
Founders: Kent Libbey, Adam Wolff (only Wolff joined Facebook)
Date acquired: May 26, 2010
Investors: Elm Street Ventures
Sold for: Facebook spokesman Larry Yu says Sharegrove was acquired mostly to obtain cofounder Adam Wolff, but the acquisition amount was never announced.
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See Also:
- What Happened To The Founding Team Behind The Largest IPO Since Google
- The Ultimate Cool Kids: Meet The 20 First-Ever Facebook Users
- Facebook's First 20 Employees: Where Are They Now?
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