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Over the weakened rumors ran rampant that popular cross-platform messaging service WhatsApp was in Google’s cross-hairs, and that a buyout might be imminent. Not so, says WhatsApp’s head of business development, Neeraj Arora. According to Liz Gannes of AllThingsD:
[WhatsApp] is not holding sales talks with Google.
Google has bought, and in some cases killed, popular services before, and likely will again. WhatsApp has been the subject of buyout rumors before, including by Facebook (who ultimately bought their competitor, Beluga), and likely will again. In an increasingly connected world, a cross-platform communication service is valuable, and Whatsapp becoming to GTalk what Sparrow became to Gmail or Snapseed became to whatever Google finally does with photos, certainly isn’t inconceivable.
Mega corporations, including Apple, buying independent software and services companies, sometimes for talent or technology rather than current products, sometimes just to reduce competitive pressures, is why we can’t always have and keep nice internet things.
Of course, a relatively low-level denial means almost nothing in a world where CEO’s tell us they’re not doing something right up until the moment they do it. So keep your rumor drawer ever-so-slightly ajar for the next few weeks. And in the meantime, let me know — do you care if Google, or someone else, buys WhatsApp?
Source: AllThingsD
