This post was published 8 years, 8 months ago. Due to the rapidly evolving world of technology, some material it contains may no longer be applicable.
For $250 million, Microsoft have completed their purchase of the popular Android keyboard app SwiftKey, which they agreed to acquire early last month.
The final closing of the deal was confirmed yesterday morning on Twitter by Microsoft’s executive VP for Technology and Research, Harry Shum:
“Excited to report we’ve completed SwiftKey acquisition. Welcome to Microsoft @SwiftKey! Let’s do great things together for our customers”
SwiftKey was initially launched in 2010 for Android devices, and less than two years ago to iOS. Today it powers over 300 million Android and iOS devices worldwide. It has saved users from nearly 10 trillion keystrokes and more than 100,000 years in combined typing time and boasts support for over 100 languages.
Although Microsoft already has one of the better mobile keyboards on the market, they have acquired the smart mobile keyboard to support ‘re-inventing productivity ambition’.
“We love SwiftKey’s technology and we love the team that Jon and Ben have formed. That’s why today I’m excited to welcome the company’s employees to Microsoft. We believe that together we can achieve orders of magnitude greater scale than either of us could have achieved independently,” – Harry Shum on the official Microsoft blog.
The tech company plans to bring the service across all platforms as well as develop the apps for it to be integrated as a core technology in their line of products and services. They will share how well they have integrated SwiftKey into their line of Windows mobile devices through another Guinness World Record World Flow technology challenge.
“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,” – A Microsoft official statement on SwiftKey regarding the acquisition.
Shortly after agreeing that they would acquire SwiftKey, Microsoft released a preview of a new “Hub Keyboard” which gives quick access to contacts and Office files. This could be seen as a potential use for the new SwiftKey tech, but how exactly they plan to utilize their new acquisition (and what it means for the existing popular SwiftKey app in the long-term) remains mostly unknown.
Source: Harry Shum (Twitter)
