[Calcalist]: Questions about Viber's Acquisition

Asaf Gilad [pictured] raises some doubts in Calcalist regarding the acquisition terms of Viber Media by Rakuten (see "[No longer a denied rumor] - Viber Sold for $900M" - here).

According to Asaf (who was the first to report about the acquisition process - here), Viber's shareholders will get a small portion of the $900M now, and the rest in two milestones based installments - $600M related to increase in the subscriber base (Viber has now 300M registered and 100M active users) and a $300M after showing increase in revenues. Most of it will be paid in Rakuten's shares rather than cash.

At time of writing (mid day Monday), Rakuten shares are down by 9.5%.

Rakuten refused to comment to Calcalist, but "sources close to the company" said that there are no milestones, and the $900M will be paid in cash. The press release (here) says "Rakuten will acquire Viber for a total consideration of $900 million".

See "$900M with many questions marks", here, Hebrew.