Sundar Pichai claims Google never attempted to buy WhatsApp

According to two separate reports from last week, Google either offered WhatsApp $10 billion to acquire the company, or possibly even offered to beat Facebook's $19 billion offer. But, those reports are "simply untrue" says Sundar Pichai. On the matter, Pichai said:

If Pichai is telling the truth, it begs a very big question: Was anyone bidding against Facebook? When a purchase price gets to the level of almost $20 billion, it seems reasonable to assume that there was bidding going on. Especially given that WhatsApp was only valued at about $1.5 billion in the last round of funding before Facebook acquired it. The gap between the valuation and purchase can't be explained by generosity on Facebook's part, so either there was a bidding war between Facebook and another company, or Pichai isn't being honest here. 

source: The Telegraph