WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton invested $50 million into the Signal app — here's how he spends his $6.9 billion fortune

• WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton is currently the 76th richest person in America, with a net worth of nearly $7 billion.
• Acton recently invested $50 million of his own money into the Signal app.
• Rather than spending lavishly, the tech billionaire seems to focus on investing and philanthropy.

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Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp, has always known how to make strides in Silicon Valley.

Most recently, he injected $50 million of his own money into encrypted chat app Signal, helping launch the Signal Foundation.

But to the 76th richest person in America, that amount barely makes a dent in the bank account. Acton has a net worth of $6.9 billion, according to Forbes. 

That's a long ways away from his Yahoo days.

Acton and his WhatsApp co-founder, Jan Koum, started the company after leaving Yahoo, and it has since become one of the most popular mobile messaging apps in the world. In 2014, WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook for $22 billion — and Acton received about $3 billion from the sale.

Acton keeps a low profile in Silicon Valley. While not much is known about how he spends his money in his personal life, it is clear that the Stanford alum has a penchant for investments and philanthropy.

Scroll through to see how he shares his billions.

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Acton's net worth has more than doubled in the past four years, increasing from $3 billion in March 2014 to $6.7 billion in March 2018.

Source: Forbes

In February 2014, Facebook made a deal to acquire WhatsApp for $19 billion in cash and stock. By the time it was acquired the following October, that number rose to $22 billion. Acton owned 22% of the company at the time of the sale.

Source: Business Insider, Bloomberg, 

It was a major payday for Acton, who received roughly $3 billion for his stake in WhatsApp, with almost 38 million shares of Facebook and $1 billion in cash. He also collected about 10 million shares of Facebook in the form of restricted stock units.

Source: Forbes, Bloomberg

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Contributer : Tech Insider http://ift.tt/2IgLtLD

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