BlackBerry Messenger coming to Nokia X and Windows Phone devices

BlackBerry Messenger or BBM is expected to come to Nokia's new Android powered X devices as well as to exisiting Windows Phone handsets. BlackBerry confirmed the news earlier, John Sims, President, Global Enterprise Solutions at BlackBerry said, “BBM continues to grow in popularity as millions of people use our mobile platform for chatting and connecting with friends or colleagues, and we are very excited that we will soon welcome Windows Phone and Nokia X users to the BBM community."

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Breaking: WhatsApp sold to Facebook for US $19 Billion in cash and stock

Owners of popular cross-platform WhatsApp mobile messaging app resisted selling the company to Google a year ago for US $1 Billion stating numerous times that they were not for sale. Well, all of that has changed today as Facebook has purchased WhatsApp for cash and stock. This causes a tidal shift in the messaging landscape and gives Facebook access to 430 million WhatsApp users and the presence in mobile that they've long desired. 

Specfics of the deal need to be formalized but the transaction involves $12 billion in Facebook stock and $4 billion in cash for WhatsApp. WhatsApp's founders and employees will also get $3 billion in restricted stock.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says WhatsApp is on its way to 1 billion global users. This is huge global push for Facebook since WhatsApp is a familiar and trusted platform right now. Facebook also purchased popular photo sharing service Instagram $ 1 Billion in 2012. Facebook's stock fell 5% in after hours trading following the news of the acquisition. Some user may not relish Facebook owning their mobile messaging app, competitors include BlackBerry Messenger, which was the originator of this type of free SMS, voice and photo-capable messaging application. BBM is currently cross platform for BlackBerry, iOS and Android.

BBM Voice Chat and BBM Channels now available to iPhone and Android

A new version of BBM will be available later today for Android, iPhone and BlackBerry customers, giving them lots of exciting new features. Android and iPhone customers will now be able to make free voice calls to BBM contacts over a Wi-Fi or data connection with BBM Voice, as well as access BBM Channels.

In addition, BBM customers on Android, iPhone and BlackBerry smartphones will have more to chat about with fast one-click sharing of photos, documents, voice notes and more. BBM customers will also be able to share their live location for a specified amount of time with other BBM contacts by using location sharing, powered by Glympse, and will have 100 new emoticons available to help them say what's on their mind.

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BBM chief parts ways with BlackBerry

Andrew Bocking, head of BBM instant messaging business, has just left BlackBerry on Monday. Reuters reports that John Chen, the company’s new chief executive, confirmed Bocking’s departure from the Waterloo, Ontario-based technology company. BlackBerry won’t confirm if his departure was part of an internal management shuffle or if it was a personal decision to leave the company. Enterprise segment head John Sims will now be in charge of BBM.