New Delhi: As part of its ongoing focus on "mobile Relevant Products/Services first," Microsoft has announced that it has acquired the mobile e-mail app startup Acompli following last week's leak. The price was not disclosed by Microsoft, but technology website Re/code said it to be worth $200 million in cash.
Acompli's "all-in-one productivity app" supports both iOS and Android mobile devices. It's an email app aimed at business and power users, with strong Outlook support, an integrated calendar, and advanced ways to arrange and deal with recent and important emails.
Acompli enables mobile users to access multiple e-mail accounts and services, defer e-mails and "triage" inbox messages to give the most important e-mails highest priority.
In addition to supporting Microsoft Exchange and Office 365, Acompli also works with iCloud, Yahoo, Hotmail, MSN, Live, Outlook and Google apps including Gmail.
"This acquisition is part of our company-wide effort to help people accomplish more with their mobile devices," in a blog post on Microsoft's Web site today, Rajesh Jha, corporate vice president for Outlook and Office 365, said. Jha also acknowledges that "In a world where more than half of email messages are first read on a mobile device, it's essential to give people fantastic email experiences wherever they go.
“That effort has included a shift to offer more support and integration for popular mobile and cloud Relevant Products/Services-based services, even if they are delivered by Microsoft competitors,” Jha said.
"We're excited about what's possible as we build on the app's success and bring it together with work currently in progress by the Outlook team," Microsoft's Jha said.
While integrating with Office 365, Acompli has continued to support Microsoft-competing e-mail and file services from Apple, Dropbox, Google and Box. That support will keep being provided even now that Acompli is officially part of the Microsoft ecosystem.
