Microsoft has been ramping up its startup purchases recently, but this time it’s buying one that already had a connection to the company: Talko, a chat app for mobile teams founded by Ray Ozzie – a former Microsoft executive.
If you’re not familiar, the iOS-only service (an Android launch was planned) brought texts messages, voice clips, calls and sharing features all into one app, with the goal of enabling teams to communicate in the best way for a given project or purpose.
Microsoft intends to bring those features into Skype and Skype for Business. In a blog post, the company said:
As part of the agreement, Talko employees will join the Skype team. Together, the new technology and talent will help us deliver great new features and capabilities in both Skype and Skype for Business.
Talko will be gradually shutting down its services by March 2016 as its features get tacked onto Skype and its employees join Microsoft. That is, except for Ray Ozzie, who doesn’t plan to return to the company.
➤ Talko comes to Skype [Microsoft via Fortune]
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