Jan Koum just sold his five-year-old mobile messaging company to Facebook in a deal worth $19 billion and a seat on the social networking giant’s board. The WhatsApp CEO signed the term sheet at the ceremonial location of the social services building where his Ukranian-immigrant family used to collect food stamps.
Susan Wojcicki of YouTube and Jan Koum of WhatsApp Join Lineup for October’s Code/Mobile
The leaders of two of the world’s biggest Internet services join our October conference.
Asa Mathat
So, he’s kind of an interesting fellow.
Koum is returning to the stage to speak at Code/Mobile, in a reprise of his Dive Into Mobile appearance last year. Code/Mobile will be held October 27 and 28 in Half Moon Bay, Calif.
We’ll be very curious to hear exactly how independent WhatsApp has stayed in the eight months since the Facebook deal, and what progress it has made on its plans to connect the world.
Not much in the world is bigger than WhatsApp and its 450 million users, but YouTube has more than double that. The Google-owned video site is the third-most popular site on the planet. And also onstage at Code/Mobile will be its brand-new CEO, Susan Wojcicki.
Wojcicki is a long-time Google exec, previously in charge of ads and commerce, who in February took the reins of the company’s largest semi-independent property. She’ll speak to us about what she has discovered in the eight months prior, where she plans to take YouTube, and how the world’s hub for all things video is pushing its advantage in mobile.
Koum and Wojcicki join a lineup that includes Skype founder Niklas Zennstrom and T-Mobile CEO John Legere, with many more speakers to be announced in the coming months. Count on hearing from some of the biggest names in mobile as well as getting insight from some up-and-comers you won’t want to miss.
As you might recall, Dive Into Mobile featured WhatsApp before Facebook, Xiaomi before it hired Hugo Barra and Waze before the company was purchased by Google.
Want to come to Code/Mobile? You should sign up today. Like all our conferences, we expect it to sell out. For those who need a little incentive to get moving, a $250 discount ends Friday.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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