Stepping up its efforts to fortify its position in the smartphone industry, Skype has announced acquisition of GroupMe, which provides a group messaging smartphone app that allows users to make conference calls, share photos and location, as well as group texting. Skype’s acquisition of GroupMe comes months after the Internet telephony company took over video streaming service Qik in January.
The terms of the Skype-GroupMe acquisition deal have not been closed. However, reports suggest that the deal is nearly $85 million. It’s notable that Skype is itself being acquired by Microsoft, which bought the Internet telephony company in May for $8.5 billion.
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Meanwhile, the deal allows GroupMe to continue working as a standalone app for now. However, it’s inevitable that GroupMe features will come to Skype sooner or later. “Skype and GroupMe have a shared vision of creating applications and experiences that are the daily communications choice for a billion people. We will continue to seek the top talent and technology to make that vision a reality,” says Tony Bates, Skype’s Chief Executive Officer.
“The GroupMe team has created an incredibly sticky group messaging experience that works across mobile devices and platforms, making this a perfect addition to the voice, video and text products in the Skype family,” added Bates.
GroupMe, on the other hand, has dubbed the deal has a “big win”. As part of the deal, GroupMe says its headquarter will continue to be in New York and that it will have access to Skype’s 175 million monthly connected users.
“Both companies are focused on changing the way the world communicates, and helping people stay in touch with the people they really know. With a shared vision—an ambitious one—we decided our efforts to own real-time communications and the real life network could be best executed as one company,” says Team GroupMe.
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