Meta acquires Manus for billions of dollars

On December 30th, according to LatePost, Meta officially completed its acquisition of Butterfly Effect, the developer of the AI application Manus, in a deal worth billions of dollars. This acquisition is Meta's third-largest transaction since its inception, second only to its previous acquisitions of WhatsApp and ScaleAI, marking another key move in Meta's artificial intelligence strategy.

Notably, the acquisition negotiations proceeded exceptionally quickly, taking only a little over ten days from initial contact to final agreement.

"It was so fast that it almost made you wonder if it was a fake offer," said Liu Yuan, partner at ZhenFund and angel investor in Butterfly Effect, describing the efficient progress of the transaction. Before Meta's move, Manus was conducting a new round of financing at a valuation of $2 billion, and Meta's involvement directly changed the company's fate.

It is reported that the Butterfly Effect founding team was initially hesitant during the acquisition process. However, Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally participated in the negotiations, ultimately persuading the founding team with his clear strategic vision and highly attractive cooperation terms.

Zuckerberg and several core Meta executives are long-time loyal users of Manus, and their deep understanding of the product and future plans were key factors in impressing the founding team.

According to the acquisition agreement, Butterfly Effect will continue to operate independently after merging with Meta, and the development direction and team structure of its core product, Manus, will not undergo significant changes.

The company's founder, Xiao Hong, will join Meta as Vice President, directly involved in Meta's strategic deployment in the AI and consumer product fields.

This acquisition not only highlights Meta's determination to fully commit to artificial intelligence, especially user-facing AI applications, but also reflects the increasingly fierce competition among leading technology companies for high-quality AI startups.

Industry observers believe that Manus's technological capabilities and user ecosystem are expected to inject new intelligent vitality into Meta's social and metaverse product matrix, further consolidating its competitive advantage in the next generation of human-computer interaction. (Source: BLOCKBEATS)