Facebook’s WhatsApp Deal Heightens Allure of Tango to Kik: Tech
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Facebook Inc.’s purchase of WhatsApp Inc. for $19 billion is heightening the allure of other fledgling businesses, some of them little known in the U.S., that specialize in letting users send messages.
At least one company, Tango, has fielded takeover advances, according to Eric Setton, Tango’s co-founder. Naver Corp.’s Line has received an offer from Softbank Corp. for a stake in the company, people with knowledge of the matter have said. Other messaging applications include Kik, KakaoTalk and SnapChat, the photo sharing tool whose parent rebuffed a $3 billion offer from Facebook last year. BlackBerry Ltd. also operates a messaging service called BBM.