Google is apparently not about to buy free messaging app company WhatsApp.
Earlier this week, it was wildly rumoured that Google was going to buy WhatsApp, but Neeraj Arora, business development head at WhatsApp told AllThingsDigital that the company is not holding talks with Google.
The deal was said to be worth $1 billion and WhatsApp's turnover is said to be around $100 million a year.
WhatsApp is a cross-platform, free messaging app with more than 40 million worldwide users of the service.
Apple Insider said, ‘Rumors have suggested the search leader [Google] working on a project known as Babble, which would provide cross-platform communications between its services. The rumored WhatsApp negotiations could be a means of bringing an accomplished team into Google's own operations, as Google did when it acquired popular iOS mail app Sparrow in July.'
It would seem that everyone would like a piece of the WhatsApp pie. The story goes that Facebook approached WhatsApp in December, but the company shunned the social network's advances. Apparently the rumours of an acquisition between Facebook and WhatsApp were 'not factually accurate'.
WhatsApp launched in 2009 and is available on iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows Phone and S40. It allows users to send texts and multimedia messages to each other using a phone's data network rather than free text allowance.
On Android, the app is free for the first year, but will cost 69p thereafter. You will also have to fork out 69p in order to download the app on iPhone, but it offers a lot of value for money.
by clareh via Featured Articles
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