Photo-sharing app Snapchat is reportedly planning to by search engine app Vurb for $200 million.
A report claims that the social media company wants Vurb’s team and that the deal will be paid with 75% stock and 25% cash. Roughly $100 million of the money will go to investors. The remaining from that will be used as retention payments to keep the Vurb team together.
Sources close to the matter told Business Insider that Snapchat is particularly interested in Vurb CEO and founder Bobby Lo. He will be reportedly getting $75 million in retention pay to keep him with the company after the acquisition is completed.
Vurb differs from the average search engine. Rather than just providing the results, it focuses on give users interesting experiences. This means that it will suggest places for users to visit and will make different recommendations based on a user’s preferences.
The Vurb team will likely be used to help enhance the search capabilities of Snapchat. Users of the social media app have little in the way of ability to search for other users. This results in them sharing pictures of their QR codes and usernames on other platforms to help people find their accounts.
It’s unlikely that Vurb will continue on after the acquisition by Snapchat. The app hasn’t had much success on either Alphabet Inc’s (NASDAQ:GOOG,NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google Play Store of Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) App Store. This adds to the idea that the photo-sharing app wants the team to help it with its search function.
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