Facebook Swallows Group Messaging Service Beluga

Facebook has bought the mobile group messaging service Beluga, the companies announced today. The acquisition is a good outcome for young Beluga, which smooths out the process of coordinating quick chats across multiple mobile platforms, but faced an uphill climb in getting groups of friends to join. It had just 50,000 monthly active users, according to AppData. Unlike many of its other acquisitions, Facebook didn’t announce plans to shut down Beluga, and said specifically that the three co-founders will continue to work on “groups and mobile communication.” The team of former Googlers had been raising a competitive angel round before it was bought.