Google is rumoured to be in talks to acquire OTT messaging WhatsApp.

According to Digital Trends, the companies are currently in the process of negotiating over how much the acquisition will cost Google – a figure that is reportedly approaching $1bn (£653m).

This wouldnt be Googles biggest-ever acquisition – that honour goes to its $12.5bn buy-out of Motorola Mobility in 2011 – though with that company being a manufacturer, its a slightly different case. More comparable are the its acquisitions of DoubleClick in 2007 ($3.1bn), YouTube in 2006 ($1.7bn), or AdMob in 2009 ($750m).

So what would Google want with WhatsApp? Firstly, its one of the most popular apps in the world – it regularly holds the top spot in the App Store for paid apps, and was processing 10bn messages on a daily basis back in August last year.

But more specficially, Google has been rumoured to be working on a combined communication service, named Babel or Babble, for the while. The idea would be to draw together its Google Talk, Voice, and Google+ Messenger services into one portal, and WhatsApps OTT messaging technology would allow it to add another string to this bow.

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