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ARTICLE · 12 AUGUST 2014

WhatsApp With Facebook? The Competition Angle

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In February, Facebook announced that it had agreed to purchase WhatsApp, an instant messaging business, for (a paltry) $19bn.

European UnionAntitrust/Competition Law
John Cassels
John Cassels
Daniel Geey
Daniel Geey

In February, Facebook announced that it had agreed to purchase WhatsApp, an instant messaging business, for (a paltry) $19bn. Facebook is the world renowned social network with over 1.2 billion users. WhatsApp allows unlimited free text-messaging and picture sending between users and is among the most popular globally downloaded mobile apps. It has over 450 million users, and is estimated to grow by 1m users per day.

It was recently reported that although Facebook has not officially notified the deal to the Commission, the regulator under the EU Merger Regulations will conduct a single review of the transaction rather than Facebook face the possibility of separate reviews in a number of EU countries.

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