Facebook has closed its deal for messaging startup WhatsApp, after receiving the go-ahead from European Union regulators last week. WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum is now a Facebook board member, and has an “inducement grant” of stock currently worth $1.9 billion if he stays with the company for the next four years. The deal price, originally announced in February as $19 billion, has now risen to $21.8 billion, primarily because the value of Facebook stock has increased.

 

 

Today the two have a combined net worth of $11 billion dollars of mostly Facebook. Jan represents an ownership of  3.76 % of Facebook’s company giving him a seat on the Board along with Brian Acton who represents an ownership of  1.68% of Facebook’s whole corporation. Their ownership can increase or decrease if they buy out more shares or sell them in the corporation giving them significant ownership of the whole corporation if they both buy 20% of the company.

In the filing, the company details the awarding of 177,760,669 shares of Facebook’s Class A common stock and $4.59 billion to WhatsApp stakeholders, plus 45,941,775 in restricted stock to WhatsApp employees to complete the deal. Koum will join Facebook’s board, and will also match Zuckerberg’s annual base salary of $1, without eligibility for the company’s bonus plan, though he does get a signing bonus of 24,853,468 restricted stock units as incentive for joining. Per the filing, Koum is joining Facebook with no fixed term of employment as part of the arrangement, but all indicators are that he wants to stick around to continue to build WhatsApp as a separate brand under the growing Facebook umbrella.