Viber CEO says not selling to Asian firms, including Viettel

February 14, 2014 | 16:00

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The top executive of Viber Media has denied a media report on Tuesday that the popular instant messaging application is negotiating to be acquired by an Asian company which some Vietnamese tech websites believed to be the military-run Viettel Telecom.

Viber CEO Talmon Marco told Reuters on Wednesday that he had “no idea what this is about,” referring to a report by Israel's Calcalist newspaper, which said Viber was in talks to be acquired by an Asian leading instant messaging company.

The deal would be some US$300 million to $400 million, according to the financial newspaper. Marco asserted with Reuters that his company was not in talks to sell.

Following the Calcalist report, some tech websites in Vietnam began to run articles saying that Viettel, one of the leading mobile network operators in Vietnam, is negotiating to acquire Viber in a bid to “boost its over-the-top messaging business.”

In over-the-top messaging, a third party provides instant messaging services as an alternative to text messaging services provided by a mobile network operator.

There are around 200 million registered users of Viber in 193 countries.

In Asia, meanwhile, there are also popular free messaging apps such as WeChat of China, Japan’s Line, KakaoTalk from South Korea, and made-in-Vietnam Zalo.

On November 29, Marco tweeted on Twitter that Viber reached 8 million users in Vietnam, while at the same time, Zalo boasted 7 million users.

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