WordPress owner Automattic has acquired Beeper, the messaging app that drew scrutiny to Apple’s iMessage dominance, in a staggering $125 million deal. The acquisition, as reported by Bloomberg, brings Beeper’s 27-member team, including co-founder Eric Migicovsky, under the Automattic umbrella.
“We sold Beeper to @automattic. The deal closed on April 1. The next day was my first day as their Head of Messaging!,” Migicovsky wrote in a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. “Beeper, as you know and love it, will continue as an independent team and product within Automattic. Our whole team has moved over, joined by new friends from http://Texts.com who were acquired last year,” he added.
In other news, we sold Beeper to @automattic. The deal closed on April 1. The next day was my first day as their Head of Messaging!
Beeper, as you know and love it, will continue as an independent team and product within Automattic. Our whole team has moved over, joined by new…
— Eric Migicovsky (@ericmigi) April 9, 2024
Beeper allows users to access various messaging services like Signal, Facebook Messenger, and Slack within a single app, boasting approximately 100,000 users. Following the acquisition, the messaging startup has exited beta and opens up to all users. It further plans to add features like encrypted messaging and support for additional services like Google Voice.
Meanwhile, the acquisition comes on the heels of Beeper’s clash with Apple over its “Beeper Mini” app, which facilitated iMessage access on Android devices—an initiative swiftly halted by the tech major Apple. Migicovsky, also the founder of Pebble smartwatches, criticized Apple’s reluctance to make iMessage more Android-compatible, suggesting it was a strategy to keep users within its ecosystem. This incident drew regulatory scrutiny and was referenced by the United States Department of Justice in its recent antitrust lawsuit against the iPhone maker.
