net calling company Skype said Sunday that it has insert into a classic agreement to get GroupMe , a startup that offers a free group text edition messaging and conference call avail on mobile phones .
Skype did not disclose how much it is paying for GroupMe .
Set up in 2010 , GroupMe offers its app on Apple ’s iPhone , Research In Motion ’s BlackBerry , and phone running the Android operating organisation . It also launched in July a version of its app for Microsoft ’s Windows Phone 7 . A forgetful message service ( SMS ) reading for users without smartphones is also uncommitted in the U.S.
GroupMe also introduced earlier this month a new version of its software that sustain direct messaging to a person in the mathematical group , and “ interrogation ” that can be directed to a few people , members of a group , or all jazz users , or distribute over Twitter and Facebook . GroupMe 3.0 also allows users to manage chemical group , transmit message , portion pic , and necessitate questions from a website , without download the program .
As part of the sight with Skype , GroupMe will remain in New York , with its squad intact and working on its standalone coating , GroupMe saidin a web log station . “ The major remainder will be that we will now have access to Skype ’s 175 million monthly connected exploiter , ” it bring .
GroupMe will continue to be a freestanding coating , a Skype spokeswoman said in an electronic mail on Monday . Skype and GroupMe will work together on integration areas , she added , but did not supply details .
For Skype , which already offers voice and video services , the attainment of GroupMe will supply the power to bid text message for group as well . Through the acquisition , Skype go on its drive to provide global multi - modal and multi - platform communications , the company say .
Microsoft tell in May that it has agreed to purchase Skype for $ 8.5 billion . Once the merger is complete , Microsoft plans to add together Skype funding to its Xbox and Kinect play gadget and Windows Phone wandering operating organization , and connect Skype users with its own Lync , Outlook and Xbox Live communication service .
Microsoft said it will continue to invest in and support Skype clients on non - Microsoft platform . The proposed acquisitionreceived clearancefrom the U.S. Department of Justice in June , as a cardinal gradation “ in the global regulative approval process , ” which may need headroom from European regulators as well .
The deal is subject to habitual closing precondition and potential regulative approvals , and will likely be close by the end of this calendar month , the spokeswoman said . GroupMe will continue as a separate and main caller until the dealing is close , she added .
