What is Brian Acton's Net Worth?
Brian Acton is an American internet entrepreneur with a net worth of $2.5 billion. He co-founded the globally popular messaging service WhatsApp. Acton's earlier career involved stints at Rockwell International, Apple, Adobe, and Yahoo! At Yahoo, he met Jan Koum, his future WhatsApp co-founder. Together, they left Yahoo in 2009 to create WhatsApp.
On February 19, 2014, Facebook purchased WhatsApp for $19 billion in cash and stock. Acton's 20% stake was valued at $3.8 billion at the time. Facebook paid with 184 million common shares and $4 billion in cash, along with 46 million additional shares for the WhatsApp founders, contingent on their tenure at the company.
WhatsApp enables smartphone users to send messages, group chats, and share photos through their data plans. It's especially popular outside the United States where international texting is expensive.
Early Life and Education
Brian Acton was born in 1972 in Michigan and later moved to Central Florida, attending Lake Howell High School. For higher education, he initially attended the University of Pennsylvania on a full engineering scholarship. After a year, he transferred to Stanford University, graduating in 1994 with a Bachelor of Science in computer science.
Career Beginnings
While studying at Stanford, Acton worked as a systems administrator at Rockwell International. He later became a product tester for Apple and Adobe. In 1996, he joined Yahoo! and two years later was joined by Jan Koum. They worked together for nine years. During the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, Acton lost millions in investments.
Getty
In 2007, Acton and Koum left Yahoo! and spent a year traveling in South America, playing ultimate Frisbee. In early 2009, Koum bought an iPhone and realized the potential of the App Store. He founded WhatsApp, and Acton joined him later that year with a stake in the company. By early 2013, WhatsApp had 200 million active users and was valued at $1.5 billion.
In 2014, Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion, marking the largest acquisition it had ever made. WhatsApp quickly became the world's most popular messaging app, surpassing 600 million users in the same year. By early 2015, it had 700 million users, and by early 2016, it reached one billion.
Leaving Facebook
Brian Acton left Facebook in 2017 due to concerns about invasive privacy and ad changes by the management. To leave, he forfeited $850 million in unvested stock options. Acton soon became a vocal supporter of the #DeleteFacebook movement and funded a rival messaging service, Signal.
Signal Technology Foundation
After WhatsApp, Acton co-founded the Signal Technology Foundation with cryptographer Moxie Marlinspike. The non-profit aims to enable secure global communication through open-source privacy technology. Its free app, Signal, provides encrypted messaging, file sharing, and voice/video calls, widely used by human rights activists and journalists.
Personal Life and Philanthropy
Brian Acton lives in Palo Alto, California, with his wife Tegan. They are active philanthropists through Wildcard Giving and its sister foundations, Sunlight Giving, Solidarity Giving, and Acton Family Giving. Sunlight Giving, launched in 2014, supports low-income families in the Bay Area. By 2019, it was reported that the Actons had donated over $1 billion to various causes.
Real Estate
Over five years, Acton spent $86 million on properties in Palo Alto near Stanford University, buying seven homes on the same street. For one home previously assessed at $1.5 million, he paid $30 million, shocking his neighbors. He has demolished one of the homes to build a contemporary residence. His compound is less than a mile from Mark Zuckerberg's similar property.
