Did you know? Facebook reminds us they own these companies
This week the Facebook for Android app updated the way they show their brand – with all sorts of icons. You'll see Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus. This is just the tip of the iceberg, really, as Facebook's ramped up acquisitions of companies over the last several years. Do you know if your favorite app and/or service is owned by Facebook? Let's take a look at the list of names that are actually owned and/or run by Facebook, from top to bottom.
Facebook owns these other companies
Facebook owns a lot of companies. They're not the biggest acquirer of tech companies and groups in the world – not at all – but given Facebook's rate of growth and role in the evolution of social media for the past decade, everything we know about the company holds some measure of importance for the public. The newest app gives us the biggest names in the group:
• Facebook Messenger
• Oculus
Below you'll find a collection of companies that have been publicly acquired and/or merged with in the past several years. The latest update on this list is Giphy, which was acquired by Facebook and "integrated with" Instagram.
• Sanzaru Games (Oculus Studio)
• PlayGiga
• Beat Games (Oculus Studio)
• Packagd (Facebook Marketplace)
• CTRL-labs (Facebook Retail Labs)
• Servicefriend (Calibra)
• GrokStyle
• Chainspace (Facebook Blockchain)
• Dreambit
• Vidspresso
• Redkix (Workplace by Facebook)
• Bloomsbury AI
• Fayteq AG (Facebook Live)
• Ozlo (Facebook Messenger)
• Zurich Eye (Oculus)
Facebook acquired both WhatsApp and Oculus VR in a span of two months in the year 2014. WhatsApp was acquired for $19-BILLION dollars (that's nineteen billion dollars), and Oculus VR was acquired for $2-billion dollars. Instagram was acquired by Facebook in the year 2012 for $1-billion dollars. Facebook's first acquisition was made when it was still called "The Face Book", when they purchased Facebook.com for $200k in the year 2005.