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Skype to Acquire GroupMe
By siliconindia
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Tuesday, 23 August 2011, 19:23 IST |
1 Comments
Bangalore: Internet calling giant Skype stated that it is ready to acquire New York based startup GroupMe. According to the industry experts, this move can get Skype into the increasingly crowded business of providing group messaging services on smartphones.
GroupMe is a group messaging smartphone application for Android, iPhone, Blackberry, and Windows Phone 7 that helps user's text and make conference calls with a group of friends, share photos and the present location. The start-up faces stiff competition from technology giants like Apple, Google, and Facebook, which are increasingly paying their focus on new smartphone messaging services that include group messaging.
According to AllThingsD, although the terms for Skype's GroupMe acquisition are not yet disclosed, some estimates suggest the acquisition to be around $85 million. Skype itself was acquired by Microsoft in May for $8.5 billion.
For now, the company will carry on as a standalone application instead of being integrated into Skype's mobile and desktop applications, reveals GroupMe.
Skype will need to bring group messaging services to its products as similar services become integral parts of social networks, the new social networking website from Google, has a group video chat feature called Hangouts which is fast becoming popular among the users. Google+ also has a mobile group chat feature called Huddle that is very similar to GroupMe's services.
Recently Facebook launched a new mobile messaging application called Messenger that supports SMS-style messaging and is likely to add video and group instant messaging in the future. Skype and Facebook also partnered on bringing one-on-one video chat to Facebook for Windows and Mac users.
GroupMe may help Skype add group features to its mobile applications to keep the users from switching off the application and opting for similar features built in the social networking site.
