Instagram is owned by Meta (the United States, NASDAQ: META), which acquired the brand on 6 September 2012.[1][2] Instagram was founded in 2010 in San Francisco, California and was independent until 2012.
Instagram had thirteen employees and no revenue when Facebook bought it in 2012 for about $1 billion, a price then considered extraordinary. It is now a substantial share of the group's advertising income, and the purchase was central to the antitrust case brought against the company.
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Facebook acquired Instagram, then a thirteen-person company with no revenue, for about $1 billion in cash and stock. The final consideration fell as Facebook shares declined between announcement and closing.
The Office of Fair Trading, whose case records the Competition and Markets Authority now holds, cleared Facebook's acquisition of Instagram unconditionally in August 2012. Competition authorities later came to regard purchases of this kind very differently, and the same transaction became central to the antitrust case brought against the company in the United States.
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The parent company of Instagram is Meta, a publicly listed company headquartered in the United States.
Yes. Instagram originated in the United States in 2010 and its owner, Meta, is also headquartered in the United States.
Meta completed its acquisition of Instagram on 6 September 2012, after announcing the deal on 9 April 2012.
Instagram was an independent company from its founding in 2010 in San Francisco, California until Meta acquired it in 2012.
Yes. As of 8 September 2026, Instagram is still owned by Meta. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
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