Facebook closes US$1bn Instagram acquisition

6 Sep 2012

Social network Facebook has closed its acquisition of photo-sharing app Instagram today, five months after announcing the US$1bn deal.

“As we said from the beginning, we are committed to building and growing Instagram independently,” Facebook said in a blog post.

“Instagram will continue to serve its community, and we will help Instagram continue to grow by using Facebook’s strong engineering team and infrastructure. We also can’t wait to work with the talented Instagram team to improve the mobile experience.”

Instagram released its own statement on the acquisition’s closure, mentioning that more than 5bn photos have now been shared through Instagram.

“We can now work together to evolve and build a better Instagram for everyone,” Instagram said of the finalised deal.

“While our team is making the short move to the Facebook offices, Instagram isn’t going anywhere. The Instagram app and its features will stay the same one you know and love, and we’ll keep working together to build a better Instagram for everyone.”

In April, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had said that the plan was to allow Instagram to continue independently and the fact that it integrates with so many other social networks is, in fact, a bonus.

Tina Costanza was a journalist and sub-editor at Silicon Republic

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