Brian Acton Biography

Brian Acton is an American computer programmer as well as an Internet entrepreneur in Michigan, U.S. Acton is the executive chairman of the Signal Foundation, which he co-founded along with Moxie Marlinspike in the year 2018.

Previously, he was employed at Yahoo!, and co-founded WhatsApp, a mobile messaging application that was acquired by Facebook in February 2014 for US$19 billion along with Jan Koum. Acton left WhatsApp in September 2017 to begin the Signal Foundation. According to Forbes (2020), Acton is the 836th-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $2.5 billion.

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10 Facts About Brian Acton

1. Name: Brian Acton
2. Age:  49 years
3. Birthday: 17th Feb
4. Height: 5 feet 6 inches
5. Weight: 68 kg or 150lbs.
6. Nationality: American
7. Occupation: computer programmer as well as an Internet entrepreneur
8. Marital Status: Married to Tegan Acton.
9. Salary: $24,292 and $720,507
10. Net Worth: $1 to $  5 Million

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Brian Acton Age

Acton is 49 years old as of 2020, he was born on 17 February 1972, in Michigan, USA. He celebrates his birthday on February 17 every year and his birth sign is Aquarius.

Brian Acton Height

Acton stands at a height of 5 feet 6 inches.

Brian Acton Weight

Acton has a weight of 68 kg or 150lbs.

Brian Acton Education

Acton graduated from Lake Howell High School. For his higher education, Brian received a full scholarship to study engineering at the University of Pennsylvania but left after a year to study at Stanford. He graduated from Stanford University in 1994 with a degree in computer science.

Brian Acton Family

Acton was born in Michigan and raised by his parents in Central Florida. Our efforts to find out more about his family came to no avail as no such information is publicly available. Thus, the identity of Acton’s parents is still unclear. It is also not known if he has any siblings. We will update this section once this information is available.

Brian Acton Wife

Acton is married to Tegan Acton. Tegan Acton was the Director of Communications and Strategic Initiatives at Stanford and also served the Sundance Institute and Yahoo.

The couple started a family foundation, ‘Sunlight Giving,’ in the year 2014. The foundation is dedicated to aiding families with low income having kids between the ages group 0–5 with basic services. While Acton serves as the secretary and treasurer of the foundation, Tegan acts as its President.

Brian Acton Net Worth

Brian has an estimated net worth of $2.6 billion USD as of 2021. This includes his assets, money, and income. Acton co-founded messaging app WhatsApp alongside Jan Koum in 2007; the two had met while working at Yahoo. The pair sold WhatsApp to Facebook for $22 billion in cash and stock in the year 2014. Acton left WhatsApp at the end of 2017.

Acton received about $3 billion for his stake in WhatsApp. The mobile messaging app has over 1 billion users in 180 countries. In February 2018, he committed $50 million to Signal Foundation, the nonprofit behind the signal mobile app focused on preserving private communication.

Brian Acton Measurements and Facts

Here are some interesting facts and body measurements you should know about Brian Acton.

Brian Acton Wiki

• Full Names: Brian Acton
• Popular As:  WhatsApp’s co-founder
• Gender: Male
• Occupation / Profession: Computer programmer as well as an Internet entrepreneur
• Nationality: American
• Race / Ethnicity: White
• Religion: Not Known
• Sexual Orientation: Straight

Brian Acton Birthday

• Age / How Old?: 49 years old as of 2020
• Zodiac Sign: Aquarius
• Date of Birth: 17 February 1972
• Place of Birth: Michigan, USA.
• Birthday: February  17

Brian Acton Body Measurements

• Body Measurements: Not Available
• Height / How Tall?: 5 feet 6 inches.
• Weight: 68 kg or 150lbs
• Eye Color: Dark Brown
• Hair Color: Brownish-Gray
• Shoe Size: Not Available

Brian Acton Family and Relationship

• Father (Dad): Not Known
• Mother: Not Known
• Siblings (Brothers and Sisters): Not Known
• Marital Status: Married
• Wife/Spouse: Married to Tegan Acton
• Dating / Girlfriend: Single
• Children:  Sons (Not known) Daughter(s) (Not known)

Brian Acton Net Worth and Salary

• Net Worth: $2.6 billion USD
• Salary: Under Review
• Source of Income: Computer programmer as well as an Internet entrepreneur in Michigan

Brian Acton House and Cars

• Place of living: US
• Cars: Car Brand to be Updated

Brian Acton Story

Brian Acton was born in 1972, in Michigan, USA. He is a graduate of Stanford University as a computer science student and began his career in the year 1992. He served big companies such as Apple, Yahoo, and Adobe.

Acton’s mother ran a freight-shipping firm and gave him an early insight into running a business as well as meeting payroll. After Acton and Koum left Yahoo in the year 2007, Acton became WhatsApp’s first investor.

Acton met another co-founder of WhatsApp, Jan Koum, as they were serving together in Yahoo. They both quit in the year 2007 and traveled around South America for one year. Later on, Acton and Koum applied for a job on Facebook and both were rejected. After the failure, they decided to create a messaging app, which currently is the most popular around the globe.

WhatsApp was sold to Facebook in the year 2014 for $22 billion. WhatsApp is now the biggest mobile messaging service in the world, with 800 million active users, the vast majority of whom are outside the U.S.

Brian Acton Forbes

Brian Acton now has a net worth of $5.1 billion. He is ranked 138 among the Fortune 400 people by Forbes as well as 338th billionaire in the world. He is ranked as the 120th wealthiest man in the United States of America.

Brian Acton Whatsapp

Brian Acton and Jan Koum both founded the most used mobile messaging application in the world called Whatsapp. It all began in the year 1998 when Jan Koum was hired by Yahoo! as an infrastructure engineer shortly after he met Acton while working at Ernst & Young as a security tester.

Brian invested in the dot-com boom and lost millions in the dot-com bubble of  the year 2000. In September 2007 Koum and Acton left Yahoo! and took a year off, traveling around South America and playing ultimate frisbee. Both applied, and failed, to work at Facebook.

After Koum purchased an iPhone in January 2009, he realized the potential of the seven-month-old App Store in spawning an entirely new apps industry in the near future. He started meeting his friend Alex Fishman in West San Jose and along with Acton, the three would discuss developing an app.

The app was named ‘WhatsApp’ by Koum to make it sound more like “what’s up”. Koum then incorporated WhatsApp Inc. on 24 February  2009, in California. At one point when Koum got fed up with versions of the app getting crashed or stuck, he thought of leaving it and searching for a new job.

WhatsApp 2.0 was released in August 2009 including a messaging component. A sudden upsurge in the number of active users was observed, reaching the count to 250,000. Acton who was till such time unemployed and was overseeing another startup, convinced five of his ex-Yahoo! friends, in October that year to invest $250,000 in seed funding.

With time the app developed including new features and by early 2011, the app emerged among the top 20 apps in Apple’s U.S. App Store. In April that year, American venture capital firm Sequoia Capital made an investment of around $8 million for more than 15 percent of the company.

Facebook made an announcement on February 19, 2014, that it was taking over WhatsApp for US$19 billion. Such acquisition not only marks the largest one made by the American online social media and social networking service company till present but also the largest purchase of any venture-backed company till such time.

Koum and Acton were granted $12 billion in Facebook shares, $4 billion in cash, and an additional $3 billion in restricted stock units. According to an estimate of Forbes, Acton held more than one-fifth stake in the company which made his net worth about $3.8 billion.

In September 2017, Acton left WhatsApp’s parent company Facebook to come up with a new foundation called the ‘Signal Foundation’. On February 21, the following year, Acton along with Moxie Marlinspike announced the formation of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization ‘Signal Foundation’, which shares its name with Marlinspike founded Signal messaging app.

An initial amount of $50 million was funded by Acton to start the ‘Signal Foundation’, the mission of which is to develop open-source privacy technology that safeguards free expression as also provides secure worldwide communication. Acton serves as the Executive Chairman of the foundation with Marlinspike as its Chief Executive Officer.

He made it to several Forbes lists including being seeded #76 in Forbes 400 2017, #38 in Richest In Tech 2017, and #251 in Billionaires 2018. According to a Forbes report on March 20, 2018, Acton tweeted publicly backing the #DeleteFacebook movement.

Brian Acton Foundation

Acton co-founded messaging app WhatsApp with Jan Koum in 2007; the two had met while working at Yahoo. The pair sold WhatsApp to Facebook for $22 billion in cash and stock in 2014. Acton left WhatsApp at the end of 2017.

Acton received about $3 billion for his stake in WhatsApp. The mobile messaging app has over 1 billion users in 180 countries. In Feb. 2018, he committed $50 million to Signal Foundation the nonprofit behind the signal mobile app focused on preserving private communication.

Brian Acton and Jan Koum

Acton co-founded messaging app WhatsApp with Jan Koum in 2007; the two had met while working at Yahoo. The pair sold WhatsApp to Facebook for $22 billion in cash and stock in 2014. Acton left WhatsApp at the end of 2017.

Brian Acton Email Address

1. Location: Palo Alto, California
2. Work: Executive Chairman @ Signal Foundation
3. Cofounder @ WhatsApp Inc.
4. Yahoo! Inc. @

Brian Acton Quotes

• Facebook turned me down. It was a great opportunity to connect with some fantastic people. Looking forward to life’s next adventure.
• Dealing with ads is depressing. You don’t make anyone’s life better by making advertisements work better.

Frequently Asked Questions About Brian Acton

Who Is Brian Acton?

Brian Acton is a highly acclaimed American computer and internet entrepreneur. Brian was formerly appointed at Yahoo! and also co-founded Whatsapp together with Jan Koum. He is also the executive chairman of the Signal Foundation, which he co-founded with Moxie Marlinspike in 2018.

How Old Is Brian Acton?

Acton is an American national born on 17 February 1972, in Michigan, USA.

How tall is Brian Acton?

Acton stands at a height of 1.7 m.

Is Brian Acton married?

Yes, Acton is married to Tegan Acton.

How much is Brian Acton worth?

Acton has an approximate net worth of $2.6 billion USD.

Where does Brian Acton live?

Because of personal reasons, Acton has not shared his precise location of residence. We will update this information if we get the location and images of his house.

Is Brian Acton dead or alive?

Acton is alive and in good health. There have been no reports of him being sick or having any health-related issues.

Where is Brian Acton Now?

Computer programmer as well as an Internet entrepreneur in Michigan, U.S. Acton is currently a board member of the Signal Foundation.

Brian Acton Social Media Contacts

• Instagram
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Youtube
• Tiktok
• Website

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