Rumour: Facebook in Talks to Acquire WhatsApp Messenger [Update]

Here’s a Sunday night rumour to end the evening–TechCrunch reports their sources note Facebook is in talks to acquire WhatsApp, the popular cross-platform messaging app:

Whatsapp, the multiplatform mobile messaging app that has been one of the runaway success stories for ad-free, paid services, has been in talks to be acquired by Facebook, according to sources close to the matter.

The reason for Facebook acquiring WhatsApp? TechCrunch theorizes it would fall into the social network’s plans to focus and expand on mobile in emerging and international markets. WhatsApp has users in over 100 countries and 750 mobile networks. It was also built with the ability to scale in mind by its founders, ex-Yahoo employees. Back in August, WhatsApp announced it was handling 10 billion messages per day; a later update noted its messages are fully encrypted when sent across their network.

WhatsApp Messenger has consistently ranked in the top paid spots in the App Store as its $0.99 price offers value to those who want to chat with friends a BlackBerry, Windows Phone, Symbian, Nokia S40 from their iPhone. Periodically the app is given away for free.

WhatsApp is so popular there are even chain letter hoaxes spreading that it is shutting down–let’s hope this rumoured sale to Facebook is one of them. Its independence has allowed WhatsApp to flourish, but at the end of the day–money talks, right?

Last March, Facebook acquired another messaging app called Beluga–and eventually shut the service down down in October.

Update: This story is just a rumour, read more here.