Is Facebook Group Texting Coming Soon?

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Facebook has been trying to serve as a tool for enabling friends keep in touch with each other and today the company appears to be expanding such functionality through the acquisition of Beluga, a group texting product.

While not known beyond the incestuous Internet technology world, Beluga was one of the more elegant group texting products, ranking right up there with GroupMe, the current leader in the space. While we don’t know what plans Facebook has for the acquisition, we’d expect the company to integrate with the relatively new messages product (which still isn’t fully rolled out to all users).
One potential use would be a complete overhaul of the mobile version of Facebook messages on iPhone and Android. However, a possible downside for Beluga seems more likely: It probably will just get integrated into the Facebook app itself.
While this is great news for Facebook, one has to wonder why on earth Beluga would sell itself to another company so soon after launching. As a fellow entrepreneur I can only imagine that the executives behind this company either weren’t visionaries, or Facebook gave them a ridiculously incredible offer.
Facebook has been making one talent acquisition after the next, and with a lot of cash in the bank, the social network can offer both stock options and plenty of cash to deserving teams. We’ll have to wait and see what comes of this purchase, but it’s pretty crazy that the company sold out so quickly.