Facebook's Zuckerberg Wanted To Acquire Snapchat In $1B+ Deal

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

Ken Yeung is a reporter for The Next Web based in San Francisco, CA. He carries around a big camera & likes to write about tech, startup (show all) Ken Yeung is a reporter for The Next Web based in San Francisco, CA. He carries around a big camera & likes to write about tech, startups, parties, and interesting people. Follow him on Twitter, on Facebook, and Google+.

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.