Snapchat acquires search and discovery app Vurb for $110 million

Snapchat is acquiring mobile search and discovery app Vurb for $110 million, according to The Information, as it looks to continue its popularity for sharing moments through disappearing images as well as features like Stories and Discovery.

The deal is believed to be 75 percent stock and 25 percent cash, though it's not yet clear what stage the deal is in, as Snapchat is remaining mum on specifics.

Of particular interest is Vurb's founder and CEO, Bobby Lo, who will reportedly join the Snapchat team. The Information reports that part of the acquisition is a roughly $100 million employee retention package.

Although not extremely popular, Vurb's app for curating information from Yelp, news sources, Rotten Tomatoes, and through general search is available for iOS and Android.

It's not yet clear if Snapchat will keep the Vurb app available or integrate the app's search tools directly into Snapchat to add a search element.

Theoretically, Snapchat could boost its Discovery feature, which has several publishers and content houses, with search and contextual information. Snapchat could also start recommending people to follow, like other social networks do, rather than making users search by name or phone number.

We have reached out to a Snapchat representative for more.

Snapchat's popularity has been exploding: earlier this summer, 150 million people were said to be using the app each day, passing Twitter in daily usage. Snapchat is valued around $20 billion.

In March, Snapchat acquired the maker of Bitmoji in a similar $100 million deal.