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10 Other Significant Things Facebook Could Have Bought With $19B Instead Of WhatsApp

Since $19 billion is a sum most of us can hardly comprehend, the Internet at large came up with a list of other things Mark Zuckerberg and his team could have purchased instead of WhatsApp.

Cover image via turner.com

Facebook's acquisition of the hugely popular messaging service WhatsApp for $19 billion is one of the largest tech deals in history. It dwarfs Facebook's acquisition of Instagram for $1 billion in 2012. You can read about Facebook's latest acquisition here:

Since $19 billion is a sum most of us can hardly comprehend (and because it's fun to imagine), the Internet at large came up with a list of other things Mark Zuckerberg and his team could have purchased for $19 billion

1. Four World Trade Centers worth $16B

Mark Zuckerberg and crew could've built four new World Trade Center skyscrapers, at a cost of $3.94 billion each.

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2. The UN's aid budget for a year worth $13B

In December, the UN asked for a record-breaking $13 billion for worldwide humanitarian relief operations in 2014, half of which will aid Syria. The purchase price of WhatsApp could've paid for all of that and more.

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3. 12.6 billion hot dogs

Mark Zuckerberg's favorite food is the bacon-wrapped hot dog. Some California vendors sell these for $1.50 each, meaning Facebook could've bought enough to feed Mark Zuckerberg one hot dog every second for the next 400 years.

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4. A Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse for all 6,337 Facebook employees

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5. A loan deal with Ukraine worth $15B

Ukraine's president announced it would accept a massive $15 billion loan deal from Russia last year, touching off deadly protests in the country that have left dozens dead and its capital in flames.

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6. A whopping number of 678 nuclear bombs

One B61-12 nuclear bomb (not pictured) is estimated to cost $28 million, so Facebook could gather a stockpile of 678 of them instead of buying the messaging app.

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7. Four aircraft carriers worth $18B

Facebook's top executives Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, David Ebersman, and Mike Schroepfer would look pretty stylish cruising the San Francisco Bay in four Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers ($4.5 billion each).

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8. Relief for the Philippines worth $6B

Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Philippines and killed more than 5,000 people. The recovery may cost $6 billion -- less than one-third of what Facebook paid for WhatsApp.

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9. Clean water and sanitation for the entire planet costing $10B

Instead of WhatsApp, Facebook's this deed would have proved more fruitful.

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10. Fund National Cancer Institute for 4 years

The enacted financial year 2014 budget for NCI is $4.923 billion. So Facebook could have funded cancer for next 4 years.

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Can you think of any other thing that Facebook could have bought instead of WhatsApp? Write to us at [email protected] and we will publish your entries here.

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