An anonymous reader writes: Facebook on Wednesday made waves when it announced a $16 billion deal to acquire the mobile messaging app WhatsApp. Yes, you read that correctly, that's billion with a capital 'B'. That's an absolutely jaw dropping figure, and far exceeds the $1 billion Facebook paid for Instagram and the rumored $3 billion it offered for Snapchat.
WhatsApp was originally founded in 2009 by Brian Acton and Jan Koum, both former Yahoo engineers. What's particularly interesting, if not downright inspirational, is that Acton — himself a former Apple engineer — applied for jobs at both Twitter and Facebook way before WhatsApp became a wildly popular mobile app. Both times he was rejected.