April 13, 2015

Messaging app Kik considers its M&A options

In the mobile messaging space, Kik Interactive has carved a nice niche for itself. While the company doesn't release statistics about user-ship, it claims that 700 million "snaps" or ephemeral messages, are sent by users each day, according to The New York Times. At present, Facebook has cornered the market with its own Messenger application (500 million monthly users) and the recent acquisition of WhatsApp (700 million monthly users). 

With high brand visibility and significant ability to raise capital, Kik remains a free agent, playing the field of potential buyers before reaching a decision. 

"We've been getting a lot of approaches for acquisitions and saying no for quite a while," Ted Livingston, Kik's founder and chief executive, said in a statement. "However, we kept on getting approached and finally decided we should at least consider all the options. So now we're talking to pretty much every company to see what a partnership might look like."

One of the ways messaging services have diversified their appeal to buyers in recent years has been opening their platforms to host media. Snapchat's "Discover" feature has allowed brands to build and house promotional content and the app has presided over music video launches for artists like Madonna. As Kik weighs its options, it may pilot more showcases for its media hosting capabilities. 

Nevertheless, Kik now finds itself in the press as a sought-after property, a powerful bargaining position for an acquisition strategy. The future of the company is yet to be seen but the positive attention doesn't hurt. 

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