Microsoft Acquires Keyboard App Maker SwiftKey

Microsoft has acquried SwiftKey for bringing innovative ways of typing text on mobile devices. The app is already prevalent on over 300 million Android and iOS devices.

According to a blog post by Harry Shum, executive vice president, Technology and Research, “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.”

The deal is estimated to be $250 million and is not going to lead to any changes in the existing SwiftKey products and allow for a multi-lingual typing experience. Moreover, the entire team which is led by SwiftKey co-founders Jon Reynolds and Ben Medlock will now be joining Microsoft. There are over 150 employees based at Seoul, San Francisco and London.

Microsoft is going to merge the new technnology with its Word Flow for bringing an all new product offering. This would offer the same Word Flow experience to Android and iOS that was earlier exclusive to the Windows platform.