Emerging Tech Instagram independent no-more jd speedy @itworldca Published: April 9th, 2012 If you're not glued to Twitter today, you might not know that the biggest social networking company in the world just acquired one of the smallest. That's right, Instagram – the little photo sharing/filter app and network that could – after just making the jump to Android has been acquired by none other than Facebook. For a purported US$1 billion, Facebook will get to brand and integrate Instagram's user base, functionality and network. Instagram, pre-purchase, is/was a San Francisco based company with a scant staff of 13. Since its app launched, the user base for Instagram grew to a whopping 30 million users and just gained another million after porting to Android. Facebook has always been a little behind the times in terms of its photo functionality, so it isn't confusing why the purchase is important to them. JD Original article: Clicking on a Fortune: Facebook to Acquire Photo-Sharing Start-Up Instagram for $1 Billion (AllThingsD)Would you recommend this article?00 Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think of this article! We'd love to hear your opinion about this or any other story you read in our publication. Click this link to send me a note →Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada Emerging Tech