Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten Inc will buy Viber Media Inc, a company behind the free messaging and calls app Viber, for $900 million in cash, Reuters reports.
The deal is expected to be completed by the end of March.
Viber offers a multi-platform mobile and desktop app that enables users to chat, send messages and emojis as well as call other users for free. It has approximately 200 million users as of May 2013.
[seealso story="2013/10/18/messaging-app-ads"]
Owned by billionaire Hiroshi Mikitani, Rakuten runs the Rakuten Ichiba e-commerce platform, and also offers banking, travel and securities services. Rakuten has bought several internet companies in the last couple of years, most notably e-book reader company Kobo in November 2011. It is also one of the leader investors behind the $100 million investment round in Pinterest.