Facebook has agreed to buy the hugely popular photo-sharing app maker Instagram for about $1 billion in cash and stock in a blockbuster deal reverberating around Silicon Valley.

Facebook’s chief executive and founder made the announcement Monday on Facebook in a post that has already generated tens of thousands of likes. He has pledged to allow Instagram to remain independent.

“For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests,” Mark Zuckerberg wrote. “We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram’s strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook. That’s why we’re committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.”

Zuckerberg noted that the acquisition marked a milestone for Facebook – and hinted that it might be the last of its size and scope.

Facebook has mainly targeted smaller companies in its acquisitions, spending no more than tens of millions of dollars on each, and usually just to get the raw talent, not the technology. The 2-year-old Instagram in San Francisco has just 13 employees. They didn't hear about the deal until co-founder Kevin Systrom called an all-hands meeting Monday morning.

“It’s the first time we’ve ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all. But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together.”

The deal is expected to close later this quarter. Instagram had been rumored to be close to a new funding round that would have valued the startup at $500 million. It had turned down a previous offer from Facebook.Former Facebook executive Matt Cohler with Benchmark Capital is a major investor in Instagram. 

沪江英语快讯：4月10日，Facebook CEO扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)在其个人主页上宣布以10亿美元收购成立仅18个月，只有13名员工的小公司Instagram！Facebook目前正在筹备IPO(首次公开招股，了解更多IPO>>)，预计融资最多100亿美元。Facebook自成立以来，一直都没有进行过大规模的并购交易，而是通常以数千万美元的价格收购小型创业公司，而且看重的并非技术而是人才。此次Facebook拿出10亿美元天价收购Instagram，自然引发业界轰动。 业内人士指出，Facebook此举，一方面为自己消灭了最大的潜在竞争对手；另一方面也将帮助Facebook改善自己的图片分享功能，并通过收购成为移动互联网的图片社交老大，可谓“一箭双雕”。 

相关内容补充:

1.Instagram是什么？

Instagram是一款可以在智能手机上进行照片分享的热门APP，主要有图片编辑和图片分享两种功能，它能以一种快速、美妙和有趣的方式将你的随时抓拍下的图片分享给他人。

2.Instagram公司

Instagram公司位于旧金山，产品于2010年10月正式登录App store，随后用户迅速增长，Instagram上线仅一周就拥有了10 万注册用户。最新信息显示，Instagram用户人数已经超过3000万人。 Instagram公司只有13名员工，也从未进行任何市场营销。  Facebook的此次收购令该公司的13名员工一夜暴富，平均每人可分得约7692万美元。

3.Instagram创始人

与Facebook的CEO扎克伯格相似，Instagram的创始人希斯特罗姆(Kevin Systrom) ，也是80后年轻俊杰。他持有Instagram公司约40%的股份，粗略估算他在此次收购中可获得4亿美元。 希斯特罗姆本人的职业出身为市场营销，他自学编程技术，并自学成才。