While Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform isn’t nearly quite as ubiquitous as they’d like it to be, the platform does have its fair share of strengths. One of those strengths would be in its virtual keyboard, which last we heard could be making its way onto iOS. However it seems that Microsoft is also interested in other keyboards, namely SwiftKey.
According to a report from the Financial Times, they claim to have heard from people familiar with the matter that Microsoft is reportedly on the verge of acquiring keyboard app maker SwiftKey for a whopping $250 million. For those unfamiliar, SwiftKey is a keyboard app that debuted on Android. It later made its way onto iOS.
If anything, this sounds like Microsoft’s way of integrating itself into competing mobile platforms, so even if they can’t compete on a platform scale, at the very least they are making apps that many a smartphone user are dependent on. We’ve seen that happen with various apps from Microsoft Garage, so this acquisition, while surprising, does make some sense.
To no one’s surprise, neither Microsoft nor SwiftKey would comment on the rumor. We’re not sure if Microsoft plans to take SwiftKey’s AI tech and integrate it into their Flow keyboard or if they plan on keeping things separate, but either way take it with a grain of salt and check back with us later for confirmation.