SwiftKey has confirmed the acquisition, stating:
"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."
Microsoft said that it will continue to offer the SwiftKey apps for Android and iOS, and that SwiftKey's technology will eventually be integrated with the Word Flow keyboard:
"In this cloud-first, mobile-first world, SwiftKey's technology aligns with our vision for more personal computing experiences that anticipate our needs versus responding to our commands, and directly supports our ambition to reinvent productivity by leveraging the intelligent cloud. SwiftKey estimates that its users have saved nearly 10 trillion keystrokes, across 100 languages, saving more than 100,000 years in combined typing time.""We'll continue to develop SwiftKey's market-leading keyboard apps for Android and iOS as well as explore scenarios for the integration of the core technology across the breadth of our product and services portfolio. Moreover, SwiftKey's predictive technology aligns with Microsoft's investments and ambition to develop intelligent systems that can work more on the user's behalf and under their control.""In the coming months, we'll have more to share about how we'll integrate SwiftKey technology with our Guinness World Record Word Flow technology for Windows."
Original story follows:
According to a new report, Microsoft is preparing to acquire SwiftKey, the makers of the popular predictive keyboard app of the same name, and whose technology has been licensed by many phone manufacturers to power the predictive engine on their default keyboards. From The Financial Times:
"Microsoft is paying around $250m to acquire London-based Swiftkey, maker of a predictive keyboard powered by artificial intelligence that is installed on hundreds of millions of smartphones, according to people familiar with the deal."
If true, Swiftkey would be just the latest of several productivity app acquisitions by Microsoft, joining the likes of Accompli, Wunderlist and Sunrise. According to the report, Microsoft's particular interest in SwiftKey is due to its artificial intelligence prowess, which powers the predictive technology that has helped SwiftKey become one of the most popular keyboards on the Android platform.
Source: Financial Times
