Google was willing to trump Facebook’s $19 billion offer to buy mobile messaging service WhatsApp, new reports suggest.

While it is well known that Google was interested in acquiring WhatsApp, it was previously thought that the company was only willing to offer $10 billion. Not so, according to The Information, which claims to have spoken with three people involved in the negotiations between the two parties.

Instead, the reason for Facebook getting the nod over Google may have come down to Google’s lack of excitement regarding WhatsApp — and its primary reason for buying it simply being so that it didn’t wind up in the hands of Facebook.

Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page met with WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum last week to discuss a potential deal. Later on, WhatsApp investor Sequoia Capital told the startup that Google would be willing to beat Facebook’s offer.

Obviously that didn’t happen, as Facebook announced its acquisition of WhatsApp on Wednesday: suggesting that Koum bought more into the Mark Zuckerberg vision of WhatsApp’s future than the Larry Page version.

But things could have been very different.

(pay site)

• SourceThe Information