You can now add the German mobile app firm 6Wunderkinder GmbH to the growing list of companies with iOS apps that Microsoft has bought in recent months. 6Wunderkinder makes the popular cross-platform Wunderlist task manager for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. According to The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft has spent somewhere in the ballpark of $100-$200 million for the firm.
Since CEO Satya Nadella took control of the company from now-retired Steve Ballmer last year, Microsoft has bought several popular apps and services for the iPhone and Mac. Late last year the company bought the beta app distribution and analytics service Hockeyapp.
In the app space, Microsoft spent a reported $100 million+ on Sunrise Calendar in February after buying the Acompli mail app and relaunching it as Outlook in January. Microsoft is also believed to have picked up the newsreader Prismatic this year after Apple was said to be interested in the firm.
Update – June 2nd: Microsoft and Wunderlist have made the deal official.
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R.I.P. Wunderlist
I hope not. I love this app and use it all the time…
I really hope not, but with the way Microsoft has been buying and repurposing, they might actually do an ok job with this.
I’m hopeful but hesitant.
Torn on this one. Glad for the guys at 6Wunderkinder that their hard work has paid off, but I feel that that MS is not a good match for them (either app concept or culture).
I’ve been using Sunrise before and since the acquisition – still love it.
I guess this is a response to Apple + IBM eating into the business market – Microsoft is biting back?
Another app which will likely die (slowly or quickly) inside the belly of a large multinational company with much bigger fish to fry. Whenever these apps are acquired by Apple, Google or Microsoft, it generally means the beginning of the end, even if development continues for a while. I dread the day we read of Dropbox or Pixelmator being acquired by one of the big three hungry mouths.
What does MSFT even want with this? Are they just buying up iOS and Android territory, like a land grab? A list-making app is hardly earth-shattering technology. It does have a pretty good sync engine, but nothing which MSFT can’t build on their own….