Rakuten, one of Japan’s largest Internet companies, has announced that it will acquire messaging app Cyprus-based Viber for $900 million.
The deal is the latest and largest in an aggressive acquisition spree by Rakuten as it seeks to “become the world’s No. 1 Internet services company,” it said, and marks its entry into the global messaging market.
Viber can now potentially add Rakuten Group’s approximately 225 million members to its existing user base of 300 million registered users. The Rakuten-Viber pairing poses a significant new challenge to line, which announced that had 300 million registered users back in November 2013 and is aiming for the 500 million milestone in 2014.
Over the last two years, its purchases have included: e-reading platform Kobo for $315 million in cash; Spanish streaming video service Wuaki.tv for an undisclosed amount; and Viki, a global video streaming platform that crowdsources translated subtitles, for a reported $200 million.
In addition to its acquisitions, Rakuten was also a lead investor in the $100 million round that valued Pinterest at $1.5 billion in May 2012. It has also set up a $10 million fund to invest in startups primarily from Southeast Asia, which has one of the world’s fastest-growing mobile marketplaces, as well as Taiwan.
The news comes just two days after Viber Media denied a report that it was in talks to be acquired by an instant messaging company from Asia for $300 million to $400 million.
In a statement, Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani said:
“I am tremendously excited to welcome Viber to the Rakuten family. Viber delivers the most consistently high quality and convenient messaging and VoIP experience available. Additionally, Viber has introduced a great sticker market and has tremendous potential as a gaming platform. Simply put, Viber understands how people actually want to engage and have built the only service that truly delivers on all fronts. This makes Viber the ideal total consumer engagement platform for Rakuten as we seek to bring our deep understanding of the consumer to vast new audiences through our dynamic ecosystem of Internet Services.”
