Mark Zuckerberg Says His Hungarian Sheepdog Beast Was His Secret Weapon In 19 Billion Whatsapp Acquisition

“My dog Beast, I think, is actually the secret weapon here… It was a tense moment and [WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum] was like, ‘All right I need to think about this.’” As Zuckerberg tells it, it was at that moment Beast entered negotiations, looking “kinda confused” and seeming to think, “‘What’s going on? These two guys are just sitting here silent.’” But instead of retreating to a more familiar and comfortable part of the house, Beast decided to ramp up negotiations to the next level: “[Beast] then walks up to Jan and jumps in his lap… And then Jan starts petting him and a second later he’s like, ‘Okay, I think we’re good.’” Beast is a social media darling for his shaggy, adorable appearance, and if you’ve seen photos of the dog it isn’t hard to imagine that a well-timed appearance from him could indeed push someone on the fence over the edge. But despite the cheerful story the relationship between Koum and Facebook took a turn for the worst after a few years. Koum reportedly left Facebook in 2018 due to disagreements over the monetization of WhatsApp, following fellow WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton, who left the previous year. By doing so, they forfeited some $1.3 billion in the value of their unvested stock options, as well as (presumably) any visits with Beast in the near future.