It is now official that Google has agreed to acquire seven-year-old social-messaging and advertising company Meebo, a chat service that evolved into a Web site toolbar and ad platform, in an effort to expand its Google+ team. Meebo confirmed the acquisition in a blog post on Monday, June 4.
"We are happy to announce that Meebo has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Google!" Meebo wrote on its blog. "For more than seven years we've been helping publishers find deeper relationships with their users and to make their sites more social and engaging. Together with Google, we're super jazzed to roll up our sleeves and get cracking on even bigger and better ways to help users and website owners alike," added the company. "We've had a blast building Meebo so far and we're really excited to start the next leg of our journey. Thank you all for coming along for the ride!"
Meebo Staff to Join Google+ Team
In a statement to The Next Web and other media, Google said Meebo's employees would join the Google+ team and help develop new ways for users to socially interact online. "We are always looking for better ways to help users share content and connect with others across the web, just as they do in real life," said the search giant. "With the Meebo teams' expertise in social publisher tools, we believe they will be a great fit with the Google+ team. We look forward to closing the transaction and working with the Meebo team to create more ways for users to engage online."
Meanwhile, TechCrunch has confirmed that the sales and marketing arms of the company will face layoffs in light of this acquisition. The terms of the agreement between Google and Meebo were not disclosed, but several reports point to an acquisition of around $100 million.
What Meebo Has to Offer
Meebo first gained ground because it provided users with a simple way to chat across IM protocols from Yahoo, AOL, Google, Microsoft, and eventually Facebook and other such services. The company continued to explore more means to offer content and advertising that are relevant to user interests through its Meebo Bar, Meebo Mini Bar, and Bookmarklet, notes VentureBeat. Meebo eventually found some success with a toolbar feature that includes chat, sharing options, and ads, that Web publishers can add to their Web sites. Moreover, according to comScore data last December, Meebo has an impressive install base of around 100 million monthly active users, which could help Google push its Google+ networking features.
