Story by
Paul Sawers
Paul Sawers was a reporter with The Next Web in various roles from May 2011 to November 2014. Follow Paul on Twitter: @psawers or check h Paul Sawers was a reporter with The Next Web in various roles from May 2011 to November 2014. Follow Paul on Twitter: @psawers or check him out on Google+.
In the days that followed Facebook’s gargantuan $19bn WhatsApp acquisition, some argued that Facebook didn’t bid enough, while others said that the mobile messaging app was far from formidable. But one other interesting nugget emerged from the affair – apparently Facebook had blindsided Google to clinch the deal.
While Google’s very own Eric Schmidt was a little evasive on the topic earlier this week, the Internet giant’s Senior Vice President, Sundar Pichai, was a little more straight forward with his answer at Mobile World Congress (MWC) yesterday. As the Telegraph reports, Pichai said claims that Google had a $10bn bid thwarted by Facebook’s counteroffer were “simply untrue”.
“WhatsApp was definitely an exciting product. We never made an offer to acquire them,” he continued. “Press reports to the contrary are simply untrue.”
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