Friday, November 10, 2017

Musical.ly Merges With Bytedance, Owner of Flipagram

Los Angeles-based Musical.ly, which develops mobile apps centered around short video, has merged with Chinese company Bytedance. Financial details of the merger were not announced. According to the two, Musical.ly will continue to operate as its own, independent platform, with founders Louis Yang and Alex Zhu joining Bytedance's team. The two said the move will help Musical.ly extend its reach in China and across Asia. Bytedance--also known as Toutiao--had also acquired Los Angeles-based Flipagram, the developer of another mobile, social photos and video sharing app, in February. Unconfirmed reports place the value of the Musical.ly acquisition at between $800M and $1 billion.