After WhatsApp acquisition, Facebook's Mark Zukerberg might be thinking about? - Financial Express ~ Electronic Gadgets

Tech Desk | New Delhi | Updated: Feb 23 2014, 18:42 IST

Facebook has decided to buy WhatsApp, an app company that mimicks traditional text messaging for smartphones. Reuters

SummaryWhat else could he have bought with all that dough?

The tech and business communities have their heads aflutter with news that social media giant Facebook has decided to buy WhatsApp, an app company that mimicks traditional text messaging for smartphones, for a staggering $19 billion ($16 billion in cash, and $3 billion in restricted stock). If that sounds like a lot of money to you, that's because it is an incomprehensible amount of money � more than you could spend in a hundred lifetimes.

As soon as WhatsApp went down, Mark Zukerberg might have started thinking: What else could he have bought with all that dough? After a bit of work out we found out just what Zuckerberg could have opted instead of WhatsApp.

1. NYC's Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village: $5.4 Billion

The largest deal in US retail history went down in 2006 in just 30 days, closing on 11,232 apartments in 110 buildings.

2. The London 2012 Olympics: $14.6 Billion

Yup. But Sochi does beat out WhatsApp with a ... wait for it ... $51 billion price tag.

3. The Cost Of Providing Safe, Clean Water to the Entire Globe: $10 Billion a Year 40% of the world lacks access to safe and reliable water supplies; it would cost $10 billion a year to provide it.

4. Cost Of Hurricane Sandy to New Jersey: $8.3 Billion

Yep, for the amount Zuckerberg is shelling out for WhatsApp, you could double rebuild New Jersey and maybe even fund a traffic study or two.

5. North Korea's Military: $8.213 Billion

OK, no one really knows, but this estimate is pretty close. At $5-8 billion a year, North Korea's entire military budget is dwarfed by the WhatsApp acquisition. For $19 billion, Facebook could probably turn Dear Leader into Dear Late Leader.

6. The World's Tallest Building: $1.5 Billion

The 2,716-foot Burj Khalifa cost just $1.5 billion. For the price of one WhatsApp, you could build 12 and have enough pocket change left over to fill them with tigers.

7. The Hoover Dam: $730 Million

Honestly, this makes the Hoover Dam sound like a great deal. But with over 96 official deaths during construction, Facebook might want to budget a couple hundred million or two