AC

Facebook just cleared its final hurdle before acquiring popular photo-sharing service Instagram: a "fairness hearing" held by the California Department of Corporations in San Francisco Wednesday morning. The hearing ended with the statement both companies wanted to hear: "the transaction appears just, fair and equitable." (Facebook was already cleared to buy Instagram by the FTC, which officially closed the book on its investigation last week.) But this wasn't just a rubber stamp. The hearing, whose witnesses included Instagram founder and CEO Kevin Systrom, turned up quite a few nuggets of interesting information about Instagram and its sale. Such as: No one else put in an official offer for the company. Despite reports that Twitter and Apple were both interested in buying the photo-sharing startup — hence Facebook's haste in buying it at twice its valuation — Instagram's chief confirmed that there was nothing else on the table, though other (unnamed) companies were...