Google denied allegations that it offered to buy the instant messaging service WhatsApp for $10 billion.
Along with the shocking revelation that Facebook has successfully acquired WhatsApp for a huge amount of $19 billion, rumors about Google's attempt to buy the app circulated, too.
According to a previous report from TechSpot, Google was highly interested with the messaging app. The Internet giant even offered a huge amount to the service so it could be informed when a third party becomes interested in acquiring them - which many speculate as Facebook.
A report from CNN on Feb. 20 said that Google also tried to acquire WhatsApp for an amount nearly half of Facebook's offer -- $10 billion.
However, during the 2014 Mobile World Congress, Sundar Pichai, a senior vice president at Google was quick to deny the rumors. He said that his company never made such offer to the messaging app and that news reports about it are simply untrue, TechSpot reported.
Whatever the truth is, WhatsApp CEO now sits comfortably in one of the chairs in the board.
Facebook bought the messaging app because the companies share the same goal, and that is to connect and deliver Internet access to billions of people around the world. Another reason is the service's over 450 million subscribers.
"There are very few services in the world that can reach that level," Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg said in a speech during the Congress.
After the acquisition, WhatsApp will not move to Facebook's headquarters. Its CEO, John Koum, promised its users that its service will not change a thing and move an inch away from its present office in New York.
At the Barcelona trade show, Koum also said that the messaging app would start offering free voice calls to users in a few months time - a move that will surely raise threat to mobile network operators.
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