Ex-WhatsApp CBO Neeraj Arora expresses regret over Facebook's acquisition of app in 2014

The former Chief Business Officer of WhatsApp, Neeraj Arora took to his official Twitter handle to express his sentiments about the acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook. The instant messaging platform was acquired by Facebook (now Meta) back in 2014. It has almost been eight years since the platform was sold for $22 billion. However, Arora says that he regrets helping the sale to Facebook. 

In a series of Tweets, Arora explains how he joined WhatsApp as the Chief Business Officer in 2011. In the following two years, WhatsApp was repeatedly approached by Facebook with a clear intention to acquire the platform. Initially, the team members at WhatsApp decided to reject the offer but Zuckerberg responded with a persuasive offer wherein he aligned Facebook's acquisition motives with the philosophy of the board at WhatsApp. 

Neeraj Arora explains one of the biggest tech acquisitions ever

In 2014, Facebook mentioned in its terms of acquisition that it will provide full support for end-to-end encryption, never show ads on the platform, and provide a board seat to one of the co-founders of WhatsApp, Jan Koum among other terms. Following this, Arora shares an image that contains a piece of paper with handwritten words that read "No Ads! No Games! No Gimmicks!" implying how WhatsApp intended to function. WhatsApp defended these values as the acquisition took place. 

Arora mentions in a tweet that WhatsApp presented three demands in front of Facebook - as the parent company of WhatsApp, Facebook will never mine user data, never run ads on the platform and never perform cross-platform tracking. While Facebook agreed to these terms at the beginning and the acquisition took place for a whopping $22 billion, the reports about the 2018 Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal threw curtains off the wall of truth. 

Expressing his regret over being in favour of selling the company to Facebook, Arora says "nobody knew in the beginning that Facebook would become a Frankenstein monster that devoured user data and spat out dirty money." Arora also mentions that he is not the only one who regrets the acquisition. He ends his Twitter thread by saying "in order for the tech ecosystem to evolve, we need to talk about how perverse business models cause well-intentioned products, services and ideas to go wrong."