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After they picked up their jaws from the ground, and digested the acquisition, eventually they started to wonder why Google didn't buy WhatsApp. After all, Larry Page likes to think big, and there was gossip of Google's interest in WhatsApp a year ago.
Well, it turns out Google did want to buy WhatsApp, it just failed.
Amir Efrati at The Information reports:
"More than six months ago, Google approached WhatsApp with an odd offer: It would pay the mobile messaging startup in exchange for the right to be notified if the messaging app entered into acquisition talks with other companies, according to a person involved in the process and two people briefed on it."
The highly unusual right-to-know offer was worth millions of dollars. WhatsApp rejected that deal.
Efrati says this idea comes from Google's head of M&A, Don Harrison. After Google got beat in the Instagram sale, it wanted to figure out a way to get an inside edge on acquisitions. So, he concocted a plan to buy shares of a company in exchange for a heads up on sales.
This seems like a weird way for any startup to operate. If a startup wants a bidding war, it shouldn't need to give Google an inside edge. And if Google really wants a company, it should just go get the company, not have its hand forced by a rival.
From all reports, it sounds like WhatsApp sold to Facebook because Mark Zuckerberg had been wooing the company for years. He was serious about closing a deal, and his personal approach made it happen.
If Google really wanted WhatsApp, Larry Page could have wooed the WhatsApp team, and then written big check.