Facebook buys WhatsApp

If you've been wondering how much over the top (OTT) messaging is actually worth, Facebook has the answer: $19 billion. That's what Zuckerberg and company paid for WhatsApp. On February 19, Facebook to reached a definitive agreement to acquire WhatsApp, a rapidly growing cross-platform mobile messaging company, for a combination of cash, Facebook shares, and restricted stock units.

"WhatsApp is on a path to connect 1 billion people. The services that reach that milestone are all incredibly valuable," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. "I've known Jan for a long time and I'm excited to partner with him and his team to make the world more open and connected."

More than 450 million people use WhatsApp on a monthly basis, and the volume of messaging that travels through the app is on par with SMS messaging globally. The success story in numbers is amazing. WhatsApp has spent zero dollars on marketing and advertising, and yet adds 1 million new users per day. The company’s relies on just 32 engineers to support its user base of nearly half-a-billion subs.

Jan Koum, WhatsApp co-founder and CEO, said, “WhatsApp's extremely high user engagement and rapid growth are driven by the simple, powerful and instantaneous messaging capabilities we provide. We're excited and honored to partner with Mark and Facebook as we continue to bring our product to more people around the world.”

Do you think the price is inflated, or that carrier-driven RCS-e can unseat these third-party communications platforms? Join in the discussion on Pipeline’s LinkedIn group.

Virtualized networking

NFV has moved beyond hype. The wire was on fire with NFV press releases last month, with stories ranging from Sandvine's virtual policy control to Alcatel-Lucent's virtualized EPC, IMS, and LTE RAN. In a unique twist, service providers are driving the market for virtualized network functions, and legacy vendors are rapidly re-tooling to support demand.

Software Defined Networking (SDN) is equally hot. What's the potential return on investment of SDN in the mobile network? According to new research commissioned by Tellabs, the operational expense (OpEx) savings created by SDN in the mobile backhaul network could reach $9 billion. This is more than twice the capital expense (CapEx) reduction predicted in an earlier study.

Mobile World Congress 2014

All eyes were on Barcelona last week as more than 85,000 attendees converged on the Fira Gran Via for Mobile World Congress 2014 and the Fira Montjuic for the concurrent mPowered industries program. During the events the Pipeline team met with leading technology vendors and service providers, and walked away with sore feet and a wealth of information and insight. Grab a café con leche and a bocadillo de jamon and surf on over to read our show coverage.