Brian Acton

About Brian Acton

Who is it?: Cofounder, WhatsApp Inc.
Birth Day: February 17, 1972
Birth Place: Palo Alto, California, United States
Residence: California
Alma mater: Stanford University (BS)
Occupation: Co-founder of WhatsApp
Organization: WhatsApp
Known for: Co-founded WhatsApp with Jan Koum in 2009

Brian Acton

Brian Acton was born on February 17, 1972 in Palo Alto, California, United States, is Cofounder, WhatsApp Inc.. 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 received about $3 billion for his stake in Whatsapp. WhatsApp is now one of the biggest mobile messaging apps with 1.3 billion monthly active users, mostly outside of the United States. Brian Acton donated Facebook shares worth nearly $290 million to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation following Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp.
Brian Acton is a member of Technology

Does Brian Acton Dead or Alive?

As per our current Database, Brian Acton is still alive (as per Wikipedia, Last update: May 10, 2020).

🎂 Brian Acton - Age, Bio, Faces and Birthday

Currently, Brian Acton is 52 years, 9 months and 4 days old. Brian Acton will celebrate 53rd birthday on a Monday 17th of February 2025. Below we countdown to Brian Acton upcoming birthday.

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Popular As Brian Acton
Occupation Technology
Age 52 years old
Zodiac Sign Pisces
Born February 17, 1972 (Palo Alto, California, United States)
Birthday February 17
Town/City Palo Alto, California, United States
Nationality United States

🌙 Zodiac

Brian Acton’s zodiac sign is Pisces. According to astrologers, Pisces are very friendly, so they often find themselves in a company of very different people. Pisces are selfless, they are always willing to help others, without hoping to get anything back. Pisces is a Water sign and as such this zodiac sign is characterized by empathy and expressed emotional capacity.

🌙 Chinese Zodiac Signs

Brian Acton was born in the Year of the Rat. Those born under the Chinese Zodiac sign of the Rat are quick-witted, clever, charming, sharp and funny. They have excellent taste, are a good friend and are generous and loyal to others considered part of its pack. Motivated by money, can be greedy, is ever curious, seeks knowledge and welcomes challenges. Compatible with Dragon or Monkey.

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Biography/Timeline

1992

In 1992, he became a systems administrator for Rockwell International, before becoming a product tester at Apple Inc. and Adobe Systems. In 1996, he became the 44th employee hired by Yahoo Inc.

1994

Acton, born in Michigan, grew up in Central Florida, where he graduated from Lake Howell High School. Acton received a full scholarship to study engineering at the University of Pennsylvania but left after a year to study at Stanford. He graduated from Stanford University in 1994 with a degree in computer science.

1998

In 1998, Jan Koum was hired by Yahoo as an infrastructure Engineer shortly after he met Acton while working at Ernst & Young as a security tester. Over the next nine years, they worked at Yahoo. Acton invested in the Dotcom boom and lost millions in the dot-com bubble of 2000. In September 2007 Koum and Acton left Yahoo and took a year off, traveling around South America and playing ultimate frisbee. Both applied, and failed, to work at Facebook. In January 2009, Koum bought an iPhone and realized that the then seven-month-old App Store was about to spawn a whole new industry of apps. He visited his friend Alex Fishman and talked about developing an app. Koum almost immediately chose the name WhatsApp because it sounded like “what’s up,” and a week later on his birthday, Feb. 24, 2009, he incorporated WhatsApp Inc. in California.

2014

In 2014, Koum and Acton agreed to sell WhatsApp to Facebook for approximately $19 billion USD in cash and stock. Forbes estimates that Acton held over 20% stake in the company, making his net worth around $3.8 billion. According to Acton's personal Twitter feed, he was turned down for employment by both Twitter and Facebook in 2009.

2018

Acton left WhatsApp in Sep 2017 to start a new foundation, the Signal Foundation. On March 20, 2018, Forbes reported that Acton had publicly tweeted support for the new #deletefacebook movement, in a "new level of public backlash."

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