Rakuten Buys Viber For $900 Million

apanese e-commerce giant Rakuten is moving into mobile messaging after it announced a $900 million deal to buy Viber, the Cyprus-based mobile voice and chat messaging company that claims 300 million registered users worldwide.

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VoIP has picked up in recent years, so much that it has become the preferred mode of communication for many of us. Viber is among the bigger players on the mobile platforms and today got acquired by Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten for a whopping $900 million.
The deal will help Rakuten take on competitor Line, which has close to 300 million users. Viber too has close to 300 million users, a growth of 120 percent in 2013 alone. The app allows users to make calls over internet, something which the market leader WhatsApp lacks.
Rakuten on the other hand has close to 225 million users worldwide and offers services in online shopping, banking and travel. The firm plans to merge the two companies together. How that goes, remains to be seen.
 Source: businesswire

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