Microsoft has confirmed that it has acquired Talko, a company that makes a mobile messaging app of the same name, led by Ray Ozzie. He was the chief software architect at Microsoft until 2010 and previously founded Groove, another company of his that Microsoft ended up acquiring. Even though the Talko team will be joining Microsoft as part of this acquisition, Ozzie himself won’t be returning to the Redmond-based software outfit.
Talko was designed to offer a unified experience for conferencing, messaging and calling with support for both online and offline use. As far as existing Talko users are concerned they will be given the option to export all of their previous Talko text, voice and photo conversations and files.
The company has also confirmed that it’s acquiring Talko to “fuel further innovation” in Skype and Skype for Business, basically meaning that Talko is going to be folded into its communications platform. “Over the next several months” Microsoft is going to gradually shut down Talko’s service with March 2016 being the deadline.
What’s next for Ray Ozzie? Well he won’t be joining Microsoft that’s for sure. “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,” he tells ZDNet. Perhaps he’ll score a hat trick and sell another one of his companies to Microsoft. What a record to hold.