Brian Acton (Whatsapp Co-Founder) Bio/Wiki, Age, Wife, Whatsapp, Net Worth, Jan Koum, Facebook, Forbes, Foundation and Quotes

Brian Acton Biography and Wiki

Brian Acton is a highly acclaimed American computer and internet entrepreneur. Brian was formerly appointed at Yahoo! and also co-founded Whatsapp together with Jan Koum. He is also the executive chairman of the Signal Foundation, which he co-founded with Moxie Marlinspike in 2018.

Brian Acton Age: How Old Is Brian Brian Acton?

Acton was born on February 17, 1972, in Michigan, USA. Brian is currently 48 years old as of 2020. He celebrates his birthday on February 17.

Brian Acton Height and Weight: How Tall Is Brian Acton?

Brian stands at an average height of 5 feet 7 inches (1.7m) with a weight of 68kg (150lbs). He appears to be quite tall in stature if his photos, relative to his surroundings, are anything to go by.

Brian Acton Family and Education

Brian was born in Michigan but grew up in Central Florida, where he graduated from Lake Howell High School. For his higher education, Brian received a full scholarship to study engineering at the University of Pennsylvania but left after a year to study at Stanford. He graduated from Stanford University in 1994 with a degree in computer science.

Brian Acton Wife: Is Brian Acton Married?

Brian’s wife, Tegan Acton, was the Director of Communications and Strategic Initiatives at Stanford and also served the Sundance Institute and Yahoo. The couple started a family foundation, ‘Sunlight Giving,’ in 2014.

The foundation is dedicated to aiding families with low-income having kids between the ages group 0–5 with basic services. While Acton serves as the secretary and treasurer of the foundation, Tegan acts as its President.

Brian Acton Net Worth: Brian Acton Forbes

According to Forbes, Brian has an estimated net worth of $2.5 Billion as of 2020. Acton co-founded messaging app WhatsApp with Jan Koum in 2007; the two had met while working at Yahoo. The pair sold WhatsApp to Facebook for $22 billion in cash and stock in 2014. Acton left WhatsApp at the end of 2017.

Acton received about $3 billion for his stake in WhatsApp. The mobile messaging app has over 1 billion users in 180 countries. In Feb. 2018, he committed $50 million to Signal Foundation the nonprofit behind the signal mobile app focused on preserving private communication.

Brian Acton Whatsapp: Brian Acton and Jan Koum

If you guys have heard about the most used mobile messaging application in the world called Whatsapp, then Brian Acton and Jan Koum both founded the application. It all started in the year 1998 when Jan Koum was hired by Yahoo! as an infrastructure engineer shortly after he met Acton while working at Ernst & Young as a security tester.

Brian invested in the dotcom boom and lost millions in the dot-com bubble of 2000. In September 2007 Koum and Acton left Yahoo! and took a year off, traveling around South America and playing ultimate frisbee. Both applied, and failed, to work at Facebook.

After Koum purchased an iPhone in January 2009, he realized the potential of the seven-month-old App Store in spawning an entirely new apps industry in the near future. He began meeting his friend Alex Fishman in West San Jose and along with Acton, the three would discuss on developing an app.

The app was named ‘WhatsApp’ by Koum to make it sound more like “what’s up”. Koum then incorporated WhatsApp Inc. on February 24, 2009, in California. At one point when Koum got fed up with versions of the app getting crashed or stuck, he thought of leaving it and search for a new job.

WhatsApp 2.0 was released in August 2009 including a messaging component. A sudden upsurge in the number of active users was observed reaching the count to 250,000. Acton who was till such time unemployed and was overseeing another startup, convinced five of his ex-Yahoo! friends, in October that year to invest $250,000 in seed funding.

With time the app developed including new features and by early 2011, the app emerged among the top 20 apps in Apple’s U.S. App Store. In April that year, American venture capital firm Sequoia Capital made an investment of around $8 million for more than 15 percent of the company.

Facebook made an announcement on February 19, 2014, that it was taking over WhatsApp for US$19 billion. Such acquisition not only marks the largest one made by the American online social media and social networking service company till present but also the largest purchase of any venture-backed company till such time.

Koum and Acton were granted $12 billion in Facebook shares, $4 billion in cash, and an additional $3 billion in restricted stock units. According to an estimate of Forbes, Acton held more than one-fifth stake in the company which made his net worth to about $3.8 billion.

In September 2017, Acton left WhatsApp’s parent company Facebook to come up with a new foundation called the ‘Signal Foundation’. On February 21, the following year Acton along with Moxie Marlinspike announced the formation of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization ‘Signal Foundation’, which shares its name with Marlinspike founded Signal messaging app.

An initial amount of $50 million was funded by Acton to start the ‘Signal Foundation’, the mission of which is to develop open-source privacy technology that safeguard free expression as also provide secure worldwide communication. Acton serves as the Executive Chairman of the foundation with Marlinspike as its Chief Executive Officer.

He made it to several Forbes lists including being seeded #76 in Forbes 400 2017, #38 in Richest In Tech 2017, and #251 in Billionaires 2018. According to a Forbes report on March 20, 2018, Acton tweeted publicly backing the #DeleteFacebook movement.

Brian Acton Foundation

Acton co-founded messaging app WhatsApp with Jan Koum in 2007; the two had met while working at Yahoo. The pair sold WhatsApp to Facebook for $22 billion in cash and stock in 2014. Acton left WhatsApp at the end of 2017.

Acton received about $3 billion for his stake in WhatsApp. The mobile messaging app has over 1 billion users in 180 countries. In Feb. 2018, he committed $50 million to Signal Foundation the nonprofit behind the signal mobile app focused on preserving private communication.

Brian Acton Quotes

  • Facebook turned me down. It was a great opportunity to connect with some fantastic people. Looking forward to life’s next adventure.
  • Dealing with ads is depressing. You don’t make anyone’s life better by making advertisements work better.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Brian Acton

Who Is Brian Acton?

Brian Acton is a highly acclaimed American computer and internet entrepreneur. Brian was formerly appointed at Yahoo! and also co-founded Whatsapp together with Jan Koum. He is also the executive chairman of the Signal Foundation, which he co-founded with Moxie Marlinspike in 2018.

How Old Is Brian Acton?

Acton was born on February 17, 1972, in Michigan, USA. Brian is currently 48 years old as of 2020. He celebrates his birthday on February 17.

How Much Is Brian Acton Worth?

According to Forbes, Brian has an estimated net worth of $2.5 Billion as of 2020. Acton co-founded messaging app WhatsApp with Jan Koum in 2007; the two had met while working at Yahoo. The pair sold WhatsApp to Facebook for $22 billion in cash and stock in 2014. Acton left WhatsApp at the end of 2017.

What Is Brian Acton Doing Now?

In September 2017, Acton left WhatsApp’s parent company Facebook to come up with a new foundation called the ‘Signal Foundation’. On February 21, the following year Acton along with Moxie Marlinspike announced the formation of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization ‘Signal Foundation’, which shares its name with Marlinspike founded Signal messaging app.

An initial amount of $50 million was funded by Acton to start the ‘Signal Foundation’, the mission of which is to develop open-source privacy technology that safeguards free expression as also provide secure worldwide communication. Acton serves as the Executive Chairman of the foundation with Marlinspike as its Chief Executive Officer.

Who’s The Owner Of Whatsapp?

Facebook made an announcement on February 19, 2014, that it was taking over WhatsApp for US$19 billion. Such acquisition not only marks the largest one made by the American online social media and social networking service company till present but also the largest purchase of any venture-backed company till such time.

Brian Acton Twitter

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