Skype To Acquire GroupMe For Group Messaging
August 22, 2011 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
Skype has agreed to acquire group messaging app start-up GroupMe, the companies announced Sunday.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but the price has been reported at $80 million to $85 million. GroupMe’s users will be added to Skype’s 175 million users.
Founded just last year, GroupMe enables people to message each other for free over mobile devices. The company had raised $11.5 million from General Catalyst Partners, Vinod Khosla‘s Khosla Ventures and Lerer Ventures.
Skype itself is still in the process of being acquired by Microsoft for $8.5 billion. Skype’s and Microsoft’s competitors in this space include Facebook, Google and Apple, which are also seeking to strengthen the communications pieces of their social strategies. Facebook recently launched its own group messaging app, Messenger, based on Beluga, a start-up that it acquired. Google has Google Voice, Google+ and its Huddle chat feature, and Apple has announced iMessage for its next iOS5, which is its own free private messaging service for people who use iOS devices.
Group messaging is an area of interest for Skype, since many people, particularly the younger demographic, have adopted free messaging apps such as GroupMe. Other competitors include Gogii’s TextPlus, Pinger’s TextFree and WhatsApp.
Communication has moved from the telephone landline to the mobile phone to Internet telephony with Skype to now apps like GroupMe with mobile communications services which do not rely on a PC or telephone number. They point to future services that integrate mobile messaging, instant messaging, email and voice, all in one, that can be accessed from any device.
