Saturday, February 15, 2014

Japan's Rakuten buys chat app Viber for $900 million to expand digital empire...

Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten Inc, controlled by billionaire Hiroshi Mikitani, will buy call and messaging app provider Viber Media Inc for $900 million in a deal that would more than double the number of users in its digital empire.

Rakuten offers services from financing to shopping to online video on its e-commerce platform, the largest in Japan. But in the face of a shrinking population and weak consumer spending at home, Mikitani is trying to re-invent Rakuten as a one-stop-site for a global audience.

Privately held Viber, run from Cyprus by Israeli entrepreneur Talmon Marco, will add 300 million users to Rakuten's existing 200 million users, Mikitani told reporters in Tokyo.

"This acquisition... will take Rakuten to a different level," said Mikitani, who is also the company's chief executive. The all-cash deal was announced after Rakuten reported an 80 percent jump in its 2013 operating profit.

"Developing this messaging system on our own would have been impossible," he added, saying Rakuten users could, for example, use Viber's instant messages to contact an online store while considering a purchase. Full story...

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