Brian Acton
Overview
- Source of Wealth
- Industry
- Technology
- Residence
- Palo Alto, California
- Organization
- Cofounder at WhatsApp Inc.
- Education
- Stanford University (Bachelor of Arts/Science)
- Marital Status
- Married
- Children
- 1
Biography
Computer engineer Brian Acton cofounded 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 3 billion users in 180 countries.
In 2018, he committed $50 million to Signal Foundation - the nonprofit behind the signal mobile app focused on preserving private communication.
Acton and wife, Tegan, have also founded three other philanthropic entities. In total, the couple holds over $1 billion in charitable vehicles.
About
Five years before Facebook bought WhatsApp, Acton had applied for a job at Facebook and was rejected.
Acton tweeted "#deletefacebook" in March 2018 in the wake of revelations that Facebook had enabled Cambridge Analytica to improperly handle data from users.