Did Amazon Acquire Biba? Video Messaging Service Could Be In The Works

Amazon is working on a new video messaging service, which it plans to unveil during its re:Invent AWS conference later this month, according to TechCrunch.

Rumors surfaced last week of Amazon’s possible purchase of Biba Systems, when GeekWire found some filings that spoke of a merger with an entity called “Justin Acquisition” from September 2015. While there was no mention of Amazon in the document, the filing did include the name of a paralegal who was employed by Amazon at the time.

Biba recently received two patents, one for video conferencing, and one for audio streaming, according to TechCrunch. Both of the patents transferred ownership to Amazon within the last two months.

We’re not exactly sure how Amazon will use Biba’s technology, but TechCrunch sources say Amazon has been showing a few people demos of their new video conferencing product. One source even said Amazon is looking to launch it at its re:Invent event after Thanksgiving,

By adding a new video conferencing product would be an extension of Amazon’s existing brand and cloud-based services. Biba currently offers video and audio conference calls, scheduling and contacts management.

Twitch’s 4.5 million-user audience is mostly made up of gamers, who broadcast themselves playing games. There have been other reporters to expand that into food and art. Amazon could potentially integrate Biba’s technology into Twitch, expanding Twitch to a B2B platform.

It’s possible Amazon could be using Biba for internal communication, or the company may be planning to compete with communication tools like Slack, Skype, Google Hangouts and the newly announced Microsoft Teams.