WhatsApp Says Google Acquisition Rumors Are Fake

But today we’ve got some good news from WhatsApp team says that the two companies aren’t even holding talks right now, let alone discussing a buyout. WhatsApp’s business development head Neeraj Arora told AllThingsD last night that the Google acquisition rumors are false.

AllThingsD‘s Liz Gannes reports:

Popular messaging app WhatsApp says it is not in discussions to sell the company to Google. Neeraj Arora, WhatsApp’s business development head, told AllThingsDigital today that the company is not holding sales talks with Google…
…Arora declined to comment further.”

And this is not the first time we hear that a company is looking to buy WhatsApp, for example from a few months ago TechCrunch reported that Facebook is going to buy WhatsApp and the rumors were false.

So what makes WhatsApp so appealing to larger tech firms? How about its enormous user base? As of last month, the service facilitated messaging for over 200 million users on over 700 networks, in more than one hundred countries. That’s pretty impressive.

Ok, but if it’s not selling out to Google or Facebook, what does WhatsApp plan to do? Well according to the company’s CEO, its immediate future includes bringing its subscription model to iOS. They’ll make the app itself free, and charge users $1 per year.