WhatsApp Denies Report of Talks Regarding Acquisition by Google
WhatsApp business development head Neeraj Arora has told AllThingsD that an earlier report claiming Google was on the verge of acquiring the company for $1 billion is not true. WhatsApp is the company behind the popular iOS app WhatsApp Messenger.
Neeraj Arora, WhatsApp’s business development head, told AllThingsDigital today that the company is not holding sales talks with Google.
Arora declined to comment further, but AllThingsD does note that WhatsApp has been the subject of sales rumors before, having been linked to Facebook in December. At the time, WhatsApp said that those reports were "not factually accurate."
WhatsApp Messenger has consistently been one of the top paid apps in the App Store in many countries around the world and is currently the #1 paid app in the U.S. store. It is one of the many messaging services, including Apple's own iMessage, available on iOS and other platforms that smartphone users have turned to in order to avoid carriers' SMS charges.
Recently, WhatsApp announced that it will be moving to a subscription model for the iOS version of its app by the end of this year. The model would likely be similar to existing WhatsApp pricing for other platforms, which would make the app free for the first year and then $0.99 per year beyond the initial free period.
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