Microsoft acquires startup LiveLoop
Microsoft has been acquiring a lot of interesting companies – start-ups or otherwise – recently. The company today acquired a small start-up that helped users share PowerPoint presentations.
LiveLoop is a web service that allows users to share their PowerPoint presentations as URLs, which can be viewed by anyone on any device with a web browser. Users can even edit these presentations in real time, with edits also reflecting instantly to other users. All this without having to install any software whatsoever.
The LiveLoop service will shut down on April 24th and the team will join Microsoft to work on improving collaboration across the different Office apps.
Here is what the service’s website says:
LiveLoop will be shutting down permanently on April 24th, 2015. New user registration and presentation upload have been disabled.
“Existing LiveLoop users: if you have any data you would like to retrieve from LiveLoop, please do so before April 24th. On April 24th, all presentations and user data will be permanently deleted”
The deal specifics are not confirmed but there is a statement from Microsoft that says that the acquisition news is true.
“Microsoft is excited to welcome the talented team from LiveLoop to help build great collaboration across Office applications, as part of our strategy and vision to reinvent productivity.”
Prior to this acquisition, Microsoft had acquired two app startups – Accompli and Sunrise, which provided excellent email and calendar apps respectively. The company was also seeking investment opportunities in the famous third-party custom ROM developer Cyanogen Inc, but that deal fizzled out before making the cut.
