Microsoft is acquiring mobile messaging startup Talko for an undisclosed amount, and the company will be folding in the app's technology to make improvements in Skype and Skype for Business.
Talko is headed by Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's former chief software architect who served the company until 2010. He was also the founder of productivity software company Groove Networks, which Microsoft likewise acquired in 2005 for $120 million.
Ozzie will not go back to work under Microsoft's acquisition, but the rest of the team of Talko will be doing so under the Skype team, according to a post on the official Microsoft blog that announced the deal.
"This is another example of our company ambition to reinvent productivity and business processes," wrote Skype corporate VP Gurdeep Singh Pall about the purchase of Talko, adding that Microsoft is continuing to make investments in new technologies that will empower users for more effective communication and collaboration, whether it be for personal or professional purposes.
Talko will be gradually shut down over the next few months, with the complete closure of the mobile messaging service by March of next year. In the post made by Talko regarding the acquisition, the company assured its users that they would be given a way to make a request to export of all their Talko conversations in the past as simple files, encompassing text, voice and pictures sent through the service.
"As part of the Skype team, we'll leverage Talko's technology and the many things we've learned during its design and development," the Talko team wrote, adding that they will continue to deliver innovations on the service as part of Skype, which will be able to reach a broader user base.
"I remain a builder, and I love helping great product teams have broad impact with their work. Looking forward to figuring out what's next," said Ozzie in an e-mail to ZDnet.
As a mobile communications service, Talko unified calling, messaging and conferencing into one app and can function whether users were offline or online. The app features Slack integration, and as Talko noted, was embraced by vision-impaired users as a communications solution.
