Skype picks up GroupMe

Internet telephony player Skype, recently acquired by Microsoft, is doing some shopping of its own, entering into an agreement to acquire mobile group messaging provider GroupMe.

GroupMe is a very new startup, having only been founded in 2010 in New York, and allows users to group text, conference call, and share pictures and location data. Skype said the purchase, which is for an undisclosed sum, complements the acquisition of mobile video provider Qik earlier this year.

Qik is a US-based mobile video sharing platform, which gives the VoIP firm greater capabilities in the mobile telephony market on both mobile and desktop type devices.

Microsoft announced its intention to buy Skype for $8.5bn in May this year and has received the go-ahead from American anti-trust regulators, following an “early termination” of a review into the proposed sale. The VoIP player claims 170 million connected users of over 200 billion minutes of voice and video conversation in 2010.