11 Biggest Companies Acquired By Facebook

Some of the biggest companies acquired by Facebook have helped the company successfully transition from being a PC-focused play to a mobile-focused company. Acquisitions are one of the quickest ways for companies to grow and develop further. Bigger companies gobble up their smaller counterparts not only to increase their revenue and expand their businesses, but also to add much needed diversification. It even sometimes helps to eliminate some future competition.

If you’re interested in further acquisitions-related reading, be sure to check out The 12 Most Expensive Acquisitions Made by Google.

Conceived in a dorm room, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has grown to become the biggest social media company in the world. It has also shelled out billions of dollars in recent years to retain its position as the top player in the social media industry today. Facebook, which is the world’s third-most visited website according to Alexa, has been making acquisitions to acquire talent, brands and improve the company’s mobile offerings; most of the acquisitions listed below were done to further strengthen the latter. WhatsApp has been its costliest buy to date, setting Facebook back by a mind-blowing $19 billion, but given WhatsApp’s success, the massive expense seems worth it.

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As a developing technology company, Facebook needed the best industry talent and engaging features so that its subscribers kept coming back for more. It has been extremely successful in its M&A strategy, though many of the acquired companies have been shut down as individual entities, they helped Facebook become the iconic brand that it is today. Some of the best features of the site, including the “like” button and the newsfeed, came about through some of its acquisitions. Today there is almost no rival to Facebook in the social media industry.

In addition to acquisitions, the company has also entered into successful partnerships with firms like Skype and Zynga to enhance user experience in video calling and gaming.

In the following list of the 11 biggest companies acquired by Facebook, we have ranked the acquisitions made by Facebook based on their price tags.