Jan Koum signed the deal to sell WhatsApp for $21 billion outside the former social services office where he and his mother once waited in line to receive food stamps. In February 2014, WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum returned to a modest, abandoned building in Mountain View, California, to sign one of the biggest technology deals of its time. The building had once housed the social services office where Koum and his mother stood in line for food stamps after immigrating to the United States from Ukraine when he was 16. Koum intentionally chose the location for the signing. Alongside WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton and investor Jim Goetz, he signed the agreement at the building’s front door, just a few blocks from WhatsApp’s headquarters. Facebook originally announced the WhatsApp acquisition at $19 billion, including $4 billion in cash, $12 billion in Facebook stock, and $3 billion in restricted shares for WhatsApp employees and founders. By the time the acquisition was completed, Facebook’s rising stock price had increased the deal’s value to roughly $21.8 billion. The enormous price reflected WhatsApp’s rapid expansion. At the time, the messaging service had more than 450 million monthly users and was gaining around one million new users each day. Despite its massive reach, WhatsApp employed only about 50 people and operated without traditional advertising. For Koum, signing the agreement at that particular doorway made the moment far more than a business deal. It brought him back to a place closely connected to the difficult beginnings of his life in America. Before co-founding WhatsApp, Brian Acton applied for positions at both Twitter and Facebook in 2009. Both companies turned him down—years before Facebook would spend billions acquiring the company he helped build.(Historic Vids)