Automattic, the corporate behind WordPress and Texts.com, has acquired Beeper, the startup that gives a unified chat expertise throughout varied messaging companies. This acquisition was accomplished for a reported $126 million, prompting a merger between the 2 present messaging apps.
Though Beeper has been within the information fairly a bit currently, largely due to its extremely publicized dispute with Apple over iMessage integration on the platform, the app has been technically in beta standing. This ends in the present day as Beeper has announced in its blog together with the acquisition announcement. Beeper is now out there to everybody with no waitlist and continues to place lots of emphasis on consumer privateness and knowledge management, which inserts in effectively with Automattic’s concentrate on free open-source software program.
Beeper will proceed to run by itself below Automattic’s “Different Bets” part after the acquisition. Which means that everybody will nonetheless be capable to use the Beeper app, and the corporate will nonetheless defend buyer privateness. The marketing strategy of freely giving a free app with paid premium options can also be prone to keep the identical.
Eric Migicovsky, Beeper’s founder, is hyped on the potential of merging Beeper’s tech with the desktop-centric strengths of Texts.com. Appears to be like like they’re taking the “better of each worlds” method right here. He additionally gave a shoutout to Texts.com founder Kishan Bagaria, mentioning a protracted historical past of collaboration between them. That mentioned, Migicovsky will be replacing Bagaria as “Head of Messaging” within the newly merged model of Beeper — because the Beeper branding will prevail — leaving some uncertainty as to what Bagaria’s new position will probably be.Â
Each Beeper and Texts.com customers don’t have anything to concern thus far. Migicovsky assures that nothing will change for both product in the present day, aside from Beeper’s apps popping out of beta. Moreover, Beeper’s privateness coverage and ToS will stay the identical for now.
As each groups merge, we will see how they work in the direction of constructing “the very best chat app on earth,” as Migicovsky has so usually mentioned. The potential for an open-source messaging platform is actually intriguing, and it appears to be like like Beeper is one step nearer to reaching that purpose.
