Giant Email App Now Owned By Microsoft
In a surprise bid, Microsoft have bought out the email app company that supports both iOS and Android for $200m. What does Microsoft intend to do with it?
Microsoft have always been in the business of buying out smaller companies and putting them to good use, but their latest conquest sees them parting with the best part of $200m for the giant mobile email app Acompli.
Acompli were ushered onto the scene with a rather large backing from investment professionals Redpoint, stating that it seemed like a ‘no brainer’. Since that point Acompli have gone on to produce the app that has since been sold off for a rather large margin of profit.
What some of you will have already realised is that Acompli offers support for a number of Microsoft’s rival companies. What is most interesting about the purchase is that Microsoft doesn’t seem to have any plans to shut down the sections of the app company that support them.
Those of you unfamiliar with Acompli really should give it a look – it does exactly what it set out to do and that is, in the words of Acompli themselves, ‘to make mobile email better’. It supports Exchange, Gmail and Google Apps, iCloud, and Yahoo.
Plans
The decision not to shut down aspects of Acompli that are supporting rival businesses doesn’t seem to fit in with Microsoft’s usual disposition of world domination, but it could be part of a new Microsoft that sees the business sense in developing connections with other companies and, of course, making money from them.
Whilst Microsoft have kept the whole thing mostly quiet, and are as of yet to reveal any plans that they have for the mobile app, it is clear that, on the whole, Microsoft has a very strong focus on developing its mobile programs. It is obvious that Acompli will now be playing a big part of that and, when joined with the rest of the Office 365, offer an email service alongside a comprehensive organisational app.
As it works alongside Office 365, the Acompli team will, apparently, continue to work on support for iOS and Android in the meantime.
Better Email
At its heart, Acompli set out to deliver better mobile email options for everybody, and, Microsoft states, this will remain at the core of what they aim to do. With Microsoft looking to improve its own mobile software, the inclusion of teams like those from Acompli email app, will prove to be invaluable assets.
The original plan for Acompli was to build itself into an app which developed revenue from the likes of Microsoft and iOS for its support. Instead there are now questions of whether Acompli will be seeing a rebrand at the hands of Microsoft and whether it will be sold as a separate app or as part of a Microsoft package.
Microsoft seem to be very aware of what their limitations are and what they are good at – their aim is clear – to build connections with other specialist branches so as to increase the skill set of their entire company. It seems like a smart move, but we have to wait and see how the deal will pan out. With no details revealed as of yet, we are left waiting to see what actually becomes of Acompli.
