Facebook Snaps Up Instagram in Latest Ego Boost

Following Zynga's ZNGA acquisition lead, Facebook has just acquired Instagram in a new $1B deal. The instant-success photo application has been gaining momentum for some time, and will likely increase the valuation on Facebook's pending IPO. In a statement on Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook Timeline today, he wrote, “I'm excited to share the news that we've agreed to acquire Instagram and that their talented team will be joining Facebook. For years, we've focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we'll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.” Instagram, an almost two-year-old company, offers a free photo sharing application across the Apple AAPL and Android GOOG sphere, which allows users to take a picture and share it over multiple social networks. The idea of being able to instantly share photos online appeals to Zuckerberg and the Facebook team for a variety of reasons, but these reasons are not selfish in the least. “We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience. We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook,” Zuckerberg said. For the biggest social network of all time, this acquisition is rare as there has never been a merger so large with so many users and an already-established fan base. Zuckerberg warned that this will likely be the first and last acquisition of such magnitude. “This is an important milestone for Facebook because it's the first time we've ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don't plan on doing many more of these, if any at all. But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together,” the Facebook CEO said. Facebook is set to go public in May of 2012.