Today in international tech news: Investors
seem to think that if WhatsApp is worth $19 billion, then BlackBerry
Messenger must be worth something, too. Also: Europe looks beyond the
solar system; Apple sees an uptick in China; Russia's Yandex searches
for more smartphone biz; and Kim Dotcom plans an appeal.
Facebook's US$19 billion
purchase of mobile-messaging service WhatsApp appears to have buoyed the value of BlackBerry Messenger -- and by extension, BlackBerry.
BlackBerry shares went up nearly 10 percent in after-hours trading
because, in the words of Reuters, Facebook's purchase "put a rough
valuation metric around the smartphone maker's own BlackBerry Messaging
service," also known as "BBM."WhatsApp came to the party after BBM but flew past its predecessor, which had long refused to open itself up on other platforms. WhatsApp has an estimated user base of 450 million -- BBM is at about 80 million -- and is compatible with iOS and Android, as well as devices powered by Windows and BlackBerry.
Before the announcement of the WhatsApp deal, financial services outfit Raymond James on Tuesday valued BBM at $240 million, or $3 per user. WhatsApp, however, sold at an amount worth roughly $42 per user, thus making BBM more attractive. Ergo, BBM looks better now than it did Tuesday.
source:Reuters
No comments:
Post a Comment