Facebook Inc(NASDAQ:FB ) is in talks to acquire cross-platform mobile chat program, WhatsApp, TechCrunch reported citing sources.
WhatsApp was founded in 2009 and it provides the smartphone application across all operating systems such as Android, Blackberry, iOS and Windows. It works on phones that support text messages, transfer of images, audio and video messages. According to reports the application has about 100 million daily users, presence in about 250 countries on a variety of platforms.
The report in TechCrunch did not have any details about the likely size of the deal nor how far the talks had progressed between the two companies.
Last year in October WhatsApp had said in a blog post that it was transmitting 1 billion messages daily.
"Just how much is 1 billion messages? That is 41,666,667 messages an hour, 694,444 messages a minute, and 11,574 messages a second," it said.
It added that it was a "small step closer towards our goal: providing a great mobile messaging system for a global market, regardless of your handset."
For Facebook it’s a strategic acquisition since the social networking site is being accessed across platforms and having a platform-agnostic application would be a definite help specially as the company is getting aggressive on monetising its mobile subscriber base.
CNET, which followed up the story, said that WhatsApp's messenger application had come in for criticism "recently from security and mobile researchers who alleged security risks based on its authentication process."
The authentication process was pronounced to be a security nightmare by bloggers, who said that the application leaked data when the information collected for authentication purposes was sent to servers
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