Snapchat Buys Bitmoji App for More Than $100 Million
March 25 2016 - 12:10AM
Dow Jones News
Messaging startup Snapchat Inc. has agreed to pay more than $100
million in cash and stock to acquire Bitstrips Inc., the maker of
popular virtual-sticker application Bitmoji, according to two
people familiar with the deal.
The Bitmoji app lets users create customized cartoon avatars
that look like them, and then send them using a special smartphone
keyboard. The app, initially launched in October 2014, has surged
in popularity, never falling out of the coveted rankings of the top
100 apps in Apple Inc.'s app store at any point this year,
according to App Annie. Several celebrities such as actors Seth
Rogen and Lena Dunham use the app.
Snapchat, which rarely makes acquisitions, may be stepping up
its deal making to compete with Facebook Inc., a growing rival in
the fun and funky world of filters and add-ons for mobile
messaging. Facebook earlier this month acquired Masquerade
Technologies Inc., the maker of an app that lets users enhance
videos through filters and the ability to "swap" faces with others
in the picture.
The Bitstrips acquisition could help Snapchat build on the
quirky library of visual filters and lenses it already offers to
the messaging app's 100 million daily users. The company
experimented with selling some of its visual photo effects through
a "lens store" but decided to shut down the store in January and
offer a rotation of lenses for free.
Fortune earlier reported on Snapchat's agreement to acquire
Bitstrips.
Toronto-based Bitstrips was founded in 2007 by Canadian animator
Jacob Blackstock, the company's CEO, to originally help people
create personalized digital comics. Bitstrips had raised $11
million from investors including Kleiner Perkins Caufield &
Byers and Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing's venture-capital fund,
Horizons Ventures Ltd.
Snapchat has previously acquired eyeglass maker Vergence Labs
for as much as $15 million; video-chat service AddLive for $30
million; and QR-scanning app Scan for as much as $50 million,
according to emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and sent to
and from Michael Lynton, a Sony Corp. executive and Snapchat
director. Those emails were released by hackers who infiltrated the
movie studio's computers.
Snapchat recently raised $175 million in fresh funding from
Fidelity Investments, valuing the messaging company at $16 billion,
the same valuation it received from investors a year ago, a person
familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal earlier this
month.
Write to Douglas MacMillan at douglas.macmillan@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 24, 2016 23:55 ET (03:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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