03/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - Facebook's purchase of WhatsApp given go-ahead. On Friday 3 October, the European Commission gave the go-ahead to the planned purchase of WhatsApp Inc by Facebook, Inc for smartphone applications. Facebook has a similar type of application of its own, Facebook Messenger, so the European Commission studied the deal (between two American companies) under the EU merger regulation. It decided that the deal would not hamper competition because the two bodies are not close competitors, and similar applications are available for the general public from other sources. The Commission's investigation examined communications services for the general public, social network services and online publicity. (MD)