Viber bought for 900 million dollars

Viber, a VoIP service provider, was acquired by Japanese company Rakuten. The transaction amount is 900 million US dollars. This, of course, is not the 8 with something billions that Microsoft paid for Skype, but also quite good.

It should be borne in mind that Viber already has about 300 million registered accounts (how many of them are active - not reported), and user growth is constantly growing. So, last year the number of users of the Viber network increased by 120%.

By the way, at the end of last year, the ability to make calls to mobile and landline phones was added to the Viber client. Previously, only Viber users with the appropriate application installed could call each other. Actual rates for calls to different countries of the world can be found out howon the Viber website , and directly in the application. The Viber out service still works in versions for iPhone, Android and desktop OS.

Representatives of both parties believe that the deal is beneficial for both Rakuten and Viber. Rakuten will have the opportunity to socialize its entire infrastructure (the company itself is engaged in online trading), and Viber will enter the Japanese market, where the company still has a minimum percentage of users.

It is worth noting that Viber has long been looking for buyers - for example, last year the company hired Goldman Sachs representatives to search for a potential buyer. Then the company's management estimated its assets at 500-600 million US dollars.

Via bbc.co.uk