The Japanese company Rakuten, specializing in e-business, today announced that their $900 million acquisition is Viber, the popular mobile application for instant messaging and voice communication. Recently we wrote that Viber was for sale and that there are several Asian companies interested in it, however the main candidate was Chinese WeChat.
Viber was founded in 2010 by Israeli entrepreneurs Talmon Marcou, and its headquarters is in Cyprus. It currently has about 300 million users in 193 countries. According to the Rakuten, Viber fits perfectly in their expansion strategy in the world of digital content. Rakuten wwill have to pay the full amount in cash, and this acquisition was published after the company reported operating profit growth of 80% from the year before, which amounted to $882.9 million.Tell us what you think
