New Delhi: Google has denied that is has made any offer to buy the popular messaging app WhatsApp.
Senior Vice President at Google, Sundar Pichai reportedly said at the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona that while the search-giant had previously held talks with WhatsApp about working closely together, reports of a $10 billion acquisition bid were "simply untrue."
“Whatsapp was definitely an exciting product. We never made an offer to acquire them.”
Google would have picked up the popular mobile messaging app for $10 billion. Earlier, sources told Fortune that Google reportedly made a $10 billion offer to buy WhatsApp. In addition to offering less cash, Google also reportedly didn't offer WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum a seat on its board of directors as Facebook did.
It was also reported by The Information that Google last year actually offered to pay WhatsApp money if it agreed to tell Google that it was entering into acquisition talks with another party.
Meanwhile, WhatsApp CEO Koum announced plans to add voice calling to the messaging app that has over 465 million monthly active users.
