Top App Acquisitions

Yahoo’s recent acquisition of MessageMe for $11.9 million is a hard line business decision, consistent with CEO Marissa Mayer’s aggressive acquisition strategy, and signals yet another example of how apps are not only changing the world, but making some app developers very rich indeed.

Just a month ago, Microsoft paid $2.5 billion to acquire Mojang and its popular game, Minecraft in an attempt to tap into its fiercely loyal community of 100 million users and reap the rewards of a reported $115 million in annual profit.

The app business and mobile technology is now big business and it’s here to stay. The multi-billion dollars spent on acquiring mobile technology and app companies this year alone has been phenomenal to say the least.

If you take a look at some of this year’s top app acquisitions, its easy to see why it’s the hottest business to be in:

MessageMe

As of November 7, MessageMe users will need to find a new tool to play with. The app is closing down and its creators integrated into the Yahoo vortex – one that will give Yahoo a big boost.

MessageMe’s founders left the following message for its account holders:

“We built MessageMe to explore our vision of how expressive and fun online communication should be. It’s been an incredible journey and we really appreciate all the support we’ve received from all of you over the last two years. The team at Yahoo shares our passion for connecting people in inspiring ways and we’re thrilled about the impact we can make with them.”

There are two things to glean from this acquisition. The first is that it is a win-win situation: Yahoo receives a vital injection of tech talent and MessageMe’s co-founders Alex Chee, Arjun Sethi, Justin Rosenthal and Vivek Tatineni, will each receive a large sum of cash and more resources than they ever imagined to create something even more impressive.

MobileSpaces

Proving that geography isn’t a barrier to acquisition and expansion is Israeli start-up MobileSpaces, who were recently acquired by Pulse Securefor $100 million.

MobileSpaces’ technology provides security for smartphones and other mobile devices used by employees. Operations will now spread from Petah Tikvah in Israel to Silver Spring, Maryland as it integrates into the Californian company’s team.

“Right now we have a research and development center in Petah Tikva that employs 10 people. We plan to expand our operations there and recruit mobile developers locally,” said MobileSpaces co-founder and chief technology officer Yoav Weiss.

MobileSpaces’ technology is downloaded to a smartphone or tablet as an app and creates a virtual partition between the employer’s and employee’s data. The workspace protects corporate information against data leakage and loss.

“In two years, 71% of US companies will allow more than half of their employees to access corporate data on a mobile device,” said Chris Hazelton, research director for enterprise mobility at 451 Research, in a statement issued by Pulse Secure. “These companies will need mobility management tools to secure corporate data in motion and on devices.”

RideScout, myTaxi

Acquired for just under $100 million by Moovel, a Daimler Subsidiary, this mobile app has hit payday.

Daimler, the parent company, is already the owner of car2Go, a subscription based mobile app vehicle sharing club, and now has placed its investment stake in urban mobility in Germany, North America and other parts of the world.

User experience is ultimately what makes an app more successful than another, and when designing, developing and releasing a new app, it’s singular the most imperative element that defines success. MessageMe, RideScout and MobileSpace are clear examples of this.