Yahoo doesn’t look to be slowing down its shopping spree.
TechCrunch reports Yahoo is acquiring mobile chat service MessageMe for a rumored $30-40 million. And to get it, the company reportedly outbid none other than Snapchat.
“While Snapchat would have made the deal at the same price as Yahoo, we understand that MessageMe chose purple for two reasons: Yahoo is acqui-hiring eight people, more than Snapchat would have done; and at Yahoo the team will get to stay together to work on a new messaging product.”
Interesting timing, given news broke Friday Yahoo is planning to invest a rumored $20 million in Snapchat itself.
The MessageMe news also comes as Yahoo’s acquisition-happy business model draws criticism from investors and analysts.
There’s a chance this latest buy will represent $40 million of new ammunition for those same critics. But at the same time, Yahoo is in good company when it comes to snapping up mobile messaging.
This weekend Facebook secured more regulatory approval for its $19 billion WhatsApp acquisition.
And now, it's rumored Google is looking to get into the messaging space with a new app, as well.
“All of the big names in mobile are looking to stake out ground in an increasingly competitive market,” writes Digital Trends. “Indeed, ‘healthy competition’ was one of the reasons given as the European Commission approved Facebook’s purchase of WhatsApp on Friday.”
MessageMe will shut down on November 7. Users have until then to extract any data they want to keep.
This video includes images from Getty Images.
