Redmond giant is seamlessly focusing on cross-platform technologies these days. Fulfilling its commitment to bring its software and services to all platforms, Microsoft has made another acquisition lately.
Microsoft recently has acquired SwiftKey, the London-based Android, and iOS Keyboard app. The acquisition first reported in Financial Times was soon confirmed by the companies in their official blogposts, however, the financial details are not revealed by either of them.
Microsoft buys SwiftKey
SwiftKey software keyboard and Software Development Kit reportedly powers more than 300 million iOS and Android devices and this clearly has impressed the Microsoft Research Team enough to shell out the $250m, as reported by The Financial Times. As per the official blogpost written by Harry Shum, head of Microsoft Research, SwiftKey employees will join the Microsoft team and the SwiftKey technology will be integrated with Word Flow technology of Windows.
This is not the first time when Microsoft has acquired an app to provide software and services to Android and iOS devices. Back in the year 2014, Microsoft acquired email engagement app Acompli to remake Outlook for the Android and IOS. Not to forget Microsoft also released its popular personal-assistant service Cortana for Android and iOS in December 2015.
Talking about the acquisition, Microsoft says,
“In the interim, I’m extremely excited about the technology, talent and market position SwiftKey brings to us with this acquisition, and about how this further demonstrates Microsoft’s desire to bring key apps and technologies to platforms from Windows to Android to iOS”.
Co-founders of SwiftKey Joy Reynolds and Ben Medlock said,
“Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Our mission is to enhance interaction between people and technology. We think these are a perfect match, and we believe joining Microsoft is the right next stage in our journey.”
This is company’s first acquisition in 2016. Back in the year 2015, Microsoft acquired Havok from Intel, the text analyst software Equivio, Revolution Analytics, and Datazen, the mobile business intelligence company.
