Facebook Actually Paid $1.23 Billion For Instagram

Alyson Shontell

mark zuckerberg facebook

Last week, Instagram was acquired by Facebook for $1 billion, or so we thought.

Today we're learning, it was really worth much more.

The New York Times reports it was a 70/30 split -- 70% of the $1 billion deal was Facebook stock, 30% was cash.

Instagram got $700 million of Facebook shares at $30 a share, which means Facebook is internally valuing itself at $75 billion.

That's a low-balled valuation. Everyone expects Facebook's IPO valuation to be near $100 billion.

That means the shares will be worth $933 billion. ($700 million at $30 a share = 23 million shares. 23 million shares at $40 a share = $933 million.)

Throw in the $300 million in cash and you get the real valuation for Instagram: $1.23 billion.

That figure could end up being low, too. If Facebook's stock goes on a run and its value triples, the Instagram acquisition could become a $3 billion deal.

On the flip side, if Facebook's stock tanks, the deal could be worth significantly less.

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18 Apr 2012
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