Skype Buys GroupMe For $50 Million, Company Will Retain Entire Team

Skype has announced the acquisition of group messaging service GroupMe for somewhere in the vicinity of $50 million to $100 million. According to people close to the deal the GroupMe application will continue to operate independently but will likely play a major role in future updates to the Skype messaging system.

While initial reports put the buy at $50 million, BetaBeat‘s Ben Popper says several sources have placed the deal between $75 million and $85 million.

On their official GroupMe blog the company noted that the acquisition is “not just a big win for GroupMe and our amazing investors, but also for New York City.”

Popper noted:

“As part of the deal, GroupMe will remain in New York, team intact, working on our standalone application. The major difference will be that we will now have access to Skype’s 175 million monthly connected users.” and “Skype arguably picked the best of breed to help it conquer the mobile market.”

Microsoft acquired Skype earlier this year which technically means Microsoft has purchased GroupMe.

Skype has most recently faced increasing competition from the like of Google+ and their video messaging service which allows up to 10 people to communication at the same time and from Facebook who recently launched a video chat competitor of their own.

How would you like to see GroupMe become integrated into Skype systems.