Microsoft seems to have a knack for purchasing apps aiming to increase people’s productivity, as The Wall Street Journal reported that a new acquisition is in the play.
According to the report, Microsoft is set to spend somewhere between $100 million and $200 million on buying a startup called 6Wunderkinder GmbH. The Berlin-based company owns the famous productivity app Wunderlist, and it has become popular enough to draw Microsoft’s attention.
If the deal goes through, the giant tech firm will have put together the complete package of apps focused on calendars, email, and now to-do lists. Acompli, the email app, was last year’s acquisition, a service enabling users to give a much faster email response via template answers.
The app also featured an innovative system for sorting the emails entering the inbox, and it soon became the Outlook app, as Microsoft quickly re-branded it. Early 2015, the company went on and bought Sunrise, the calendar app which is still operating autonomously.
Wunderlist is among the best-rated apps in App Store, gaining four and a half stars. Basically, it does exactly what a physical to-do list would, but it also allows users to share their achievements with co-workers and friends.
It comes with various extra options, such as the ability to create lists which can be edited by multiple users. For this to work, Wunderlist also doubles up as a team-work service that doesn’t necessarily require a smartphone since it runs on both desktop and mobile.
In 2013, Wunderlist was featured as Apple’s Mac App of the Year for its desktop version. The app is integrated with Slack since last month, which means users can see tasks and notifications in the collaboration tool while at the same time being able to chat in real time.
Startup 6Wunderkinder is fairly young, founded only 4 years ago by six friends. It took only four engineers and two designers from Berlin to launch the desktop version of Wunderlist in November 2010, soon followed by an iOS app in December.
Despite its short presence in the market, the company has made $23.9 million in five rounds, $19 million of which came from Sequoia Capital. Both Evernote and Dropbox are proud additions to their portfolio.
Chief Executive Christian Reber said they accomplished quite a lot in such a short time, managing to reach in various departments. Users come to 6Wunderkinder for three things: for files, they download Dropbox, for notes they have Evernote (outstanding app, both on desktop and mobile) and for tasks – there’s Wunderlist.
Image Source: imore
Ryan Harris
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