Google is no stranger to buying out companies. Over the years, they have purchased a large sum of companies ranging across plenty of different technology markets each with their own talents, and each one having a role to play in the future of Google services. Some of them have continued on as separate entities within the company, like Nest, who sits alongside Google as a company under the Alphabet umbrella, while others like Songza were stripped down eventually with their technology being rolled into a product Google already offered. Yesterday, news hit the web that Google was in talks for their next acquisition, a little service called Telegram that you might be familiar with, and that Google was rumored to be looking at spending upwards of $1 Billion to acquire the messaging platform.
Telegram is a now-huge and very popular messaging service on Android and iOS platforms among a sea of growing options out there for smartphone users. Telegram, like quite a few of the services, though, has features and functionality that make it the go-to choice for many. Given Google’s track record for buying up popular companies to roll their services into their own, it may not have sounded too outlandish that they may actually be in talks to buy Telegram at some point in the future. According to a spokesperson for Telegram, that is simply not the case.
Telegram, now with what the company states is a 100 million monthly active user strong service, has been updating the app consistently to add new features in an attempt to gain more and more members. One of Telegram’s most popular features is its privacy, allowing users to engage in secret chats that are private between only the sender and the recipient. Like more than a few other services, though, Telegram has also been focusing on developing bots into their messaging service to bolster its offerings and so far they’ve added quite a few to enhance the user experience. Aside from denying the rumor that acquisition talks are happening, the spokesperson has also states that Telegram has no plans in the future for any acquisition talks. Telegram also firmly believes in its service being completely free and says that profit from the service will never be their goal.