Tech Retrospect: Facebook buys WhatsApp and Google launches Project Tango
Miss a few stories this week? We'll get you up to speed with this rundown of all the tech news.
The big, multi-billion dollar acquisitions just keep rolling in -- and they keep getting bigger, too. The latest comes courtesy of Facebook, which paid a total of $19 billion in cash, stock, and options for WhatsApp. At first glance that seems like an absolutely preposterous amount of money for an app that many in the US still haven't heard of. But, roll up the numbers plus the angles, and it starts to make a little more sense.
If you're unfamiliar with WhatsApp, it's a heavily messaging-focused social network that has approximately 450 million users, 70 percent active on any given day. That's about one-third of the total users that Facebook can count, but the growth of WhatsApp far outpaces that of Facebook or, really, any other social network out there. By making this acquisition, Facebook gets an instant boost in size, gains a much stronger international userbase, and has a better chance of becoming the de facto SMS replacement.
Indeed, Google was also looking to pick up the company, making a $10 billion offer, according to Fortune. Not long ago acquisition rumors hovered at the now-paltry $1 billion mark. What a difference a year makes...
Google's Project Tango definitely wants the full tour of your new house
We often think about termites for what they destroy, but if you look at the networks and habitats they create, you realize that they're actually incredible builders, too. Inspired by the massive structures the little critters can make, engineers at Harvard created Termes. These little robots are capable of picking up bricks, moving them around and using them to build structures. Give the bots a structure you want them to build and they'll figure it out, building stairs and plunking down the blocks as necessary. It's quite impressive to behold -- and that's why I've embedded a video of the little guys in action. Enjoy.