Japan's Rakuten, an e-commerce business, announced the acquisition of Viber Media for the amount of 900 million dollars.
According to Rakuten's announcement, Viber is the "perfect complement" to the company's digital strategy, which also includes the acquisition of a number of other technology companies. The construction company is included in the acquisitions included in the specific plan tablets, Kobo and the video site, Viki.
Η εξαγορά της Viber, πάντα σύμφωνα με την ανακοίνωση της Rakuten, αποτελεί ένα ακόμη βήμα για την ιαπωνική εταιρεία να καταστεί η κορυφαία εταιρεία παροχής υπηρεσιών Internet, σε παγκόσμιο επίπεδο. Αποτελεί επίσης μία προσπάθεια της εταιρείας να διεισδύσει σε ένα νέο κομμάτι της market, όπου μπορούν να συνδυαστούν η προσφορά πολλαπλού ψηφιακού περιεχομένου, σε συνδυασμό με services e-commerce και platforms οικονομικών υπηρεσιών, που ήδη προσφέρονται από τη Rakuten.
Viber Media, an Israeli-based company based in Cyprus, provides messaging services and voice communication, being one of the main competitors of Skype, which has been acquired by Microsoft. The company has, according to November 2013, the 300 million registered users world-wide.
Viber's acquisition agreement with Rakuten is particularly interesting since, especially in the Asian markets, messaging applications have been transformed into "transport" platforms for a wide range of additional services, including e-commerce. There is also the possibility that Viber can be used to transport entertainment services via Viki or even pre-installed on Kobo tablets.
The news of the takeover comes just two days after Viber's categorical denial of publications that wanted the company to be in a takeover deal by an "Asian" company against the amount of 300-400 million dollars