This acquisition cost Facebook a lot of money, but it also brought the company over 450 million users. If you remember older news, you know that Japanese company Rakuten Inc. bought Viber this February, adding to its portfolio the mobile app which enables free calls and messages. The Japanese have spent $900 million for this deal.
Among all the titans spending money on mobile messaging apps and small companies, Yahoo seems to be the most ambitious. Since CEO Marissa Mayer took over Yahoo two years ago, the company registered around 22 acquisitions. According to reports,
Yahoo bought more U.S. tech companies than any other company last year.
The latest news involving Yahoo’s acquisitions are related to the mobile messaging app Blink. We don’t yet have the fine details of this deal, but in an official statement Blink has announced that they would
shut down both the iOS and Android versions of the app in the coming weeks before the switchover.
A few words on the mobile messaging app Blink: the app allows users to take photos, send texts and sketches and even record audio files or make videos. The greatest thing about the Blink is that all messages sent through the app self – destruct at a time set by the user. This sounds very much like Snapchat, but what differentiates Blink now is that the company isn’t exposed as a liar and a fraud, like Snapchat is.
Some analysts consider that Yahoo should have make an offer to buy Snapchat instead of Blink, but we assume that the recent negative spotlight Snapchat received doesn’t make the mobile platform too attractive for investors. On the other hand, the mobile messaging app Blink has few users and fans. According to Google Play Store statistics, the Blink has been installed only 10,000-50,000 times, which is very little in comparison to either WhatsApp or Snapchat.
However, Yahoo’s CEO seems to know what to buy and when to buy, as her attempts to redefine the company and strengthen its mobile presence are going in the right direction. Presently, the company has over 400 million monthly users of Yahoo mobile products and with this new acquisition, the numbers could go higher. For now we are waiting for more details regarding the purchase of the mobile messaging app Blink by Yahoo and we will keep you updated as usual.