Messaging Platform Kik Entertaining Sale, Says CEO

Kik, the messaging app turned platform, may soon become the property of someone other than Kik Interactive Inc. A new report suggests Kik is entertaining a sale, which would see the service become the wholly owned property of another company. The powers that be at Kik have even gone so far as to hire Qatalyst Partners to examine the business and see what their best option might be, including remaining independent. Kik's founder and CEO, Ted Livingston, has confirmed his company is exploring their options.

"We had a lot of inbound interest, especially this year," said Livingston. "We hired Qatalyst to work through all the options, one of which is to stay independent."

The lesser-known messaging platform has a robust 200 million registered users, and has raised more than $70 million as of January. The potential sale isn't the last-ditch effort of a dying service, though. Kik says they've got enough cash in reserves to hold them for two years or better.

It's not clear who may have approached Kik about an acquisition, but considering comments made by the CEO and the hiring of Qatalyst, it seems as though more than one heavy-hitter is on deck.

If you're not familiar with Kik, think of it as a precursor to the new-look Facebook Messenger. Kik was among the fist chat services to offer more than just conversation, bringing in add-ons like YouTube videos and sketching.

It's entirely possible a dark-horse company wants in on messaging, or Kik is being acquihired by an existing platform. My money is on intellectual property, though; someone may want to simply buy what Kik has worked hard to create so they don't have to navigate the increasingly deep waters of creating a messaging platform from scratch or expanding their service to keep up.

Source: Bloomberg