• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, April 18, 2012

As the dust settles following Facebook’s agreement to buy Instagram, new details are emerging that betray the true characters of both companies. Portraying Facebook as something of a dictatorship, The Wall Street Journal reports that CEO Mark Zuckerberg essentially did the deal himself.

The board "was told, not consulted" about the deal on April 8 -- the day before the rest of the world learned of the deal -- a source tells WSJ.

“In fact, Zuckerberg, who controls roughly 57% of the company's voting rights, had pretty much closed the deal with Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom before even informing the board of the acquisition,” CNet notes. 

“Facebook's COO Sheryl Sandberg is said to have been informed on Thursday of that week that Zuckerberg was going to aggressively pursue the purchase of Instagram, though she herself isn't reported to have participated in the meetings with Systrom,” The Verge writes.

As Business Insider points out: “The report does give credit to one other Facebook exec for finishing the deal so fast, however: director of corporate development Armin Zoufonoun, who hammed out the merger's details during a 12-hour meeting Sunday night.”

Even more remarkable, Instagram reportedly wanted $2 billion from Zuckerberg, according to WSJ.

Adding to the intrigue, “Twitter was speculated to have ‘expressed an interest’ in buying Instagram, despite comments from its CEO appearing to reject the claim, but Instagram was supposedly ‘just hours’ from agreeing to a fresh round of VC funding,” The Next Web writes. “That investment would’ve netted the firm $50 million, at a valuation of $500 million, giving it an increased future sale price.”