Ever since acquisition rumors started building in late 2012, WhatsApp—the fast-growing messaging service with serious outer-bubble appeal—seemed destined for a multi-billion exit. But how, pray tell, did Facebook decide 19 was the "magic number"? One source tells Valleywag that it began with a $250 million funding offer.

Facebook turned 10 yesterday, which means that if Mark Zuckerberg were still a middle-finger-swinging youth, he'd just be getting over his hangover. Instead, he's a perfectly groomed corporate overlord. Here's our tribute to Zuck when he was still fun—and wasted.

This morning, the world woke up to two "humbled" letters from two chief executives: Satya Nadella and Mark Zuckerberg. But you didn't need to read their words that closely because the CEOs proceeded to repeat them—almost verbatim—on camera not long after.

The boy king of NASDAQ has earned $3.4 billion dollars for himself this year alone, Bloomberg, reports, owing mostly to Facebook buoyant stock prices.. It's barely February.

On the occasion of Facebook's 10th birthday, Mark Zuckerberg sat down with Businessweek to reflect on what the magazine generously calls the company's pubescent period. (Please. A decade in social network years makes Facebook more like 45-years-old.)

When life gives you death threats from teenagers, you make yourself a media resurrection. Enter this heart-warming tale of Mark Zuckerberg, a humble billionaire who learned to stop worrying and love that his stock price depended on revenue from mobile advertising.

This past weekend, several hundred researchers, students, and hobbyists streamed into Lake Tahoe to attend a conference called Neural Information Processing Systems. NIPS is one of the two machine learning conferences of note (the other is ICML). Acceptance rates are low; prestige is high. Anyone interested in machine learning, statistics, applied math, or data can come to the conference but do expect to be bombarded by 10,000 terms that you don't know, even if you have a PhD.

Code.org—a tech non-profit backed by Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and other top brass—wants to improve computer science education for young women and minorities. And hey, that's great. But it wouldn't be a Zuck joint without something insidious: the group will hold private data about kids for years.

FWD.us, the Facebook-backed lobbying group, is no stranger to unlikely political alliances—in fact, it's reached so far into Washington's conservative corners, some prominent members jumped ship. Teaming up with religious bigots probably won't help.

FWD.us, Mark Zuckerberg's self-serving non-profit, which has already recruited a hedge fund honcho and "a diverse group" of tech billionaires to its cause, picked up five more "major contributors" to immigration reform today, including AOL CEO Tim Armstrong and Shutterstock CEO Jon Oringer, whose IPO made him "Silicon Alley's first billionaire."

This past weekend, several hundred researchers, students, and hobbyists streamed into Lake Tahoe to attend a conference called Neural Information Processing Systems. NIPS is one of the two machine learning conferences of note (the other is ICML). Acceptance rates are low; prestige is high. Anyone interested in machine learning, statistics, applied math, or data can come to the conference but do expect to be bombarded by 10,000 terms that you don't know, even if you have a PhD.

After years of international anti-fashion icon status and getting married in his own back yard, the NASDAQ Prince might be scaling up: he just bought four homes directly next to his.

A familiar sheen of sweat coated Mark Zuckerberg's forehead yesterday when James Bennet, editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, asked the CEO of Facebook to place himself on the political spectrum. "Liberal conservative, Libertarian, Democrat, Republican, or something else?" asked Bennet.

Earlier this week, a picture of Rehtaeh Parsons showed up in a "sponsored ad" on Facebook for an online dating site called Ionechat.com. Parsons was a 17-year-old Canadian girl, who committed suicide after she was cyber-bullied on Facebook and via texts following an alleged gang-rape at a friend's house. She was taken off life support in April.

After FWD.us, Zuck's next quasi-philanthrophy will be Internet.org, an endeavor to get more poor people on the internet—with the hope, of course, that they'll become Facebook users. The long con.

Zuck has dined with Barack Obama, and now his political arm in Washington is pushing for a man who very recently tried to end Obama's presidency. Politico reports FWD.us, the Silicon Valley lobbying cabal, is dropping $350,000 on pro-Ryan ads.

When last we saw Stanley Druckenmiller, he was predicting the next financial implosion. But the Wall Street winner and GOP-supporter must think America will be around for at least another couple years, because he's joining the FWD.us party.

We know FWD.us has been working both sides of the aisle with covert TV ads, but the social network's corporate PAC is also pushing its immigration agenda with a more traditional ploy: cash handouts. Here's who's on the take, and for how much:

Congratulations, Zuck & Co. The Senate just approved a massive immigration bill 68-32. That will help tech companies hire more highly-skilled labor at cheaper wages. And all FWD.us had to do was praise oil drilling in the Arctic and grease GOP wheels to get it passed.

Just in regarding that fat immigration reform bill: a preliminary vote in the Senate shows "15 Republicans backing the measure and no Democrats opposing it," a sign of "growing momentum" in DC, says the WSJ. Zuck (and friends), looks like you did it.