Automattic Acquires Multiservice Messaging App Beeper
upstart writes:
WordPress.com owner Automattic acquires multiservice messaging app Beeper for $125M:
WordPress.com owner Automattic is acquiring Beeper, the company behind the iMessage-on-Android solution that was referenced by the Department of Justice in its antitrust lawsuit against Apple. The deal, which was for $125 million according to sources close to the matter, is Automattic's second acquisition of a cross-platform messaging solution afterbuying Texts.com last October.
[...] The deal, which closed on April 1, represents a big bet from Automattic: that the future of messaging will be open-source and will work across services, instead of being tied up in proprietary platforms, like Meta's WhatsApp or Apple's iMessage. In fact, Migicovsky says, the eventual plan after shifting people to the Beeper cross-platform app for managing their messages is to move them to Beeper's own chat protocol - an open-source protocol called Matrix - under the hood.
[...] Matrix, a sort of "spiritual successor" to XMPP, as Migicovsky describes it, offers an open-source, end-to-end encrypted client and server communications system, where servers can federate with one another, similar to open-source Twitter/X alternative Mastodon. However, instead of focusing on social networking, like Mastodon, it focuses on messaging.
[...] "I've known Matt [Mullenweg, Automattic founder and CEO] for years now," Migicovsky said, adding that the WordPress.com founder had shown commitment to open-source technology, like Beeper, where about half its product is already open-source. "We were looking to find a partner that could financially support this. One of the reasons why there are no other people building this type of app is it costs a surprisingly large amount of money to build a damn good chat app," Migicovsky noted.
[...] In this rewritten version of Beeper, the company is starting to roll out fully end-to-end encrypted messages across Signal. That will be soon followed by WhatsApp, Messenger, and Google Messages.
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