Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg reportedly wanted to acquire Snapchat in deal worth more than $1 billion

As mobile messaging service Snapchat looks to potentially raise $200 million in funding, there’s word suggesting that at one point Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had approached the company in an attempt to acquire it. Sources tell The Wall Street Journal that the offer for the startup was north of $1 billion — the amount that Zuckerberg paid for Instagram the day after Facebook went public.

Snapchat reportedly rebuffed Facebook’s advances and Facebook has declined to comment on the matter telling WSJ that it doesn’t respond to rumors or market speculation.

Could Zuckerberg’s interest in Snapchat be in its technology? Or perhaps its enormous popularity? The company has said that in September, it processed approximately 350 million messages each day, a 75 percent increase since June.

➤ Snapchat Mulls Raising Money at $3-4 Billion Valuation (Wall Street Journal)

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