Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) might be poised to acquire WhatsApp, a mobile messaging operator whose app is more or less a replacement for traditional SMS and has been incredibly popular with teens.
TechCrunch reports that people close to the matter say Facebook has been in talks with the company about a potential buyout.
WhatsApp delivers more than 10 billion messages per day across more than 100 countries. A key to those numbers is the program’s wide availability on more than 750 mobile networks. In addition to Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS and Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android — the app is No. 2 on Apple’s App Store and has had more than 100 million installs on Google Play — the app also is found on devices from Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) and Nokia (NYSE:NOK).
Better yet, WhatsApp is not another example of a money-losing technology — it been able to monetize its base with low-cost pay-as-you-go contracts.
The business model is likely to be very attractive to Facebook, which is searching for new sources of revenues.
Tom Taulli runs the InvestorPlace blog IPO Playbook, a site dedicated to the hottest news and rumors about initial public offerings. He is also the author of “How to Create the Next Facebook” and “High-Profit IPO Strategies: Finding Breakout IPOs for Investors and Traders.” Follow him on Twitter at @ttaulli. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
A long-time follower of the IPO scene, back in 1999 Tom started one of the first sites in the space called WebIPO. It was a place where investors got research as well as access to deals for the dot-com boom. Tom also wrote the top-selling book, Investing in IPOs. In it, he covers all the aspects of analyzing an IPO, such as reading the prospectus, detecting the risk factors and understanding some of the arcane regulations. But don’t worry — if that process is too intimidating for you, thankfully Tom will do the legwork for you right here in the IPO Playbook blog.
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