Google's Sundar Pichai has denied at Mobile World Congress that his company bid on the popular mobile instant messaging and SMS app WhatsApp.

Pichai, Senior Vice President in charge of Chrome, Android, and apps, said in Barcelona this week that it was "simply untrue" that Google had offered to buy WhatsApp, reported the Telegraph.

An earlier report indicated that Google was outbid by Facebook for WhatsApp, which Mark Zuckerberg permanently friended for $19 billion. Google had reportedly offered $10 billion, according to Fortune.

While there may not have been a formal bid from Google for WhatsApp to compete with the Facebook offer, that doesn't mean that Google wasn't interested in WhatsApp. AppleInsider reported in 2013 that WhatsApp was asking Google for $1 billion, although WhatsApp denied the allegation. If those negotiations in fact did take place, they obviously fell through.

Another report indicated that Google CEO Larry Page met with WhatsApp's co-founder and CEO Jan Koum in an attempt to convince him not to hook up with Zuckerberg.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. CNET will update the story when we hear back from them.

By: DocMemory
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