Microsoft Rumored To Purchase A Stake In Foursquare

With Facebook offering their own “check in” feature, and with Google adding Waze to Google Maps, Microsoft seems to be lagging behind somewhat. However according to a report from Bloomberg, perhaps Microsoft won’t be lagging behind for too long as the Redmond company is reportedly looking to purchase a stake in Foursquare. It does not appear to be a full on acquisition, but it is unknown as to how big of a stake Microsoft is interested in. Naturally neither Microsoft nor Foursquare has commented on the rumor, but word has it that the talks are in a somewhat advanced stage, a deal has yet to be finalized.

While it is unclear as to why Microsoft could be interested in Foursquare, it is speculated that Microsoft could be looking to achieve something similar with Bing Maps that Google did when they acquired Waze, which ultimately allowed Google to rely on crowd-sourcing to add more details and information to Google Maps. However unlike Waze, Foursquare does not appear to be for traffic, but rather for location check-ins, but if it can add more functionality to Bing Maps, why not? Take it with a grain of salt for now, but what do you guys think? Any Bing Maps users out there excited about this potential deal with Foursquare?

Tyler Lee
Categories: General, Rumors
Tags: foursquare, Microsoft