Skype goes shopping, picks up GroupMe

Skype has come a long way from its early days.

Rossi Fernandes|Aug 22, 2011, 10:29:01 IST

Skype has come a long way. From being a free VoIP telephony application, it has now become a giant and was most recently in the news for being acquired by Microsoft. Skype has just bought GroupMe, a free communication software for mobile platforms such as iOS, Android, BlackBerry and recently, Windows Phone 7. GroupMe is a comparatively new startup and is a little more than a year old. While there’s no confirmation of how much GroupMe was sold for, it’s estimated to be above $50 million. The move should allow Skype to enhance its features and services, as well as propagate to other platforms.

One of the youngest startups to be bought over

The announcement was made by Tony Bates, CEO of Skype. There’re no details on how GroupMe will operate from here - as a standalone app or a bunch of features within the Skype client. Skype is likely to be integrated with some of Microsoft’s existing online services on the desktop, mobile and the gaming console. GroupMe is likely to follow that path sometime in the future and will now have access to Skype’s existing 175 million users. GroupMe is a free service that allows users to register and communicate with others using mobile numbers. There are also features that allow devices without SMS to send messages over the web. Photo sharing and posting questions to its users are some of its other features.

By Rossi Fernandes

Our resident Hardware Ninja, Rossi, lives for speed - by uhh riding his bicycle. He's Tech2's utility man, dividing his time between cameras, software and intense bouts of Quake III. He's also a fan of all things obscure, case in point, Live for Speed (sic). Never heard of it? We rest our case. In his spare time he tries to teach our new joinees the tricks of the trade even though the blood sweat and tears, but give him a camera and all things forgotten.