Skype buys GroupMe messaging service for $85 million

Skype is going to acquire group messaging service GroupMe, which was created back in 2012 at a Hackathon at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York.

GroupMe was founded by Jared Hecht and Steve Martocci just last year in 2010. As of now the terms of the deal are not being revealed, and this includes details about the price. A few months after TechCrunch Disrupt, GroupMe was able to get their hands on $850,000 of financing from Betaworks, SV Angel, Lerer Ventures and First Round Capital. Early 2011 the company was able to raise $10.6 million from previous investors as well as Khosla Ventures and General Catalyst, according to TechCrunch. Some reports say that Skype has bought GroupMe for $85 million. AllThingsD came up with the figure referring to sources who are familiar with the deal. Microsoft and Nokia will be working side-by-side on the new Windows Phone devices, which means that consumers could see GroupMe hit the new smartphones from Nokia in some form. Users who use GroupMe are allowed to start up private groups. Users are able to initiate conference calls as well as SMS each other. Group messaging has exploded this year and this is why GroupMe’s valuation is high, some say. Beluga, a group messaging startup, was bought by Facebook earlier this year. Skype’s chief executive, Tony Bates, said that the acquisition of GroupMe means that Skype is one step closer to offering a product that is text-based communication to pairing it with a product that already offers voice and video calling, according to the LA Times. Bates went onto say that GroupMe will provide Skype the best in mobile text-based communications. GroupMe will allow Skype to compete with Google+’s Huddle feature and Facebook messenger.