Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom had reportedly agreed to sell the internet firm to Twitter for $525 million before Facebook Inc swooped in for a buyout, according to reports.
The emerging reports of Systrom's verbal agreement with Twitter to sell the photo sharing service hinted false swearing in his testimony before the Federal Trade Commission. According to The New York Times citing several anonymous sources in Facebook and Twitter, the Instagram CEO had several meetings with top officials from Twitter in March on the acquisition of the firm. It also reported that top executives were in shock when the Facebook buyout came to light and lost the chance to make any counter offer.
"Systrom and Mike Krieger, the other founder of Instagram, held several meetings as late as March with top Twitter executives, according to people on both sides of the talks, who requested anonymity because the talks were private and because they were concerned about legal repercussions. These people said the sides had verbally agreed weeks earlier on a price for Instagram of $525 million in cash and shares in Twitter," The New York Times reported.
The Chief executive of Instagram later asserted that his firm had not received any other offer apart from Facebook when he was asked if the sell-out was in the best interests of the company. None of the companies have responded to this latest scout.
Instagram and Twitter have been squabbling with each other since the Facebook buyout. Recently, Instagram pulled out its photo filtering feature from Twitter, which was then forced to roll out its own photo filter.
