UPDATE: It’s now official. Acompli confirms Microsoft has acquired it. Sources say that it sold for around $200 million, though no one we have approached is willing to go on record with a number. While we’re waiting for Microsoft to spell out its reasoning for making the purchase, it’s safe to assume that it’s yet another step up CEO Satya Nadella’s ladder to a mobile first, cloud first world.
Not just that, but it also gives the enterprise yet another reason to move to and stick with the Office 365 platform, with which Acompli is already integrated. It also offers “amazing” support for email and file services from Apple, Dropbox, Google and Box, the company boasts.
In a blog post, Acompli co-founder and CEO Javier Soltero explains that his team sought to create a mobile e-mail product for enterprises that is “Loved by users and trusted for IT," which is pretty much what every enterprise collaboration vendor promises to do. But based on our quick look at the solution, it has hit the mark and is destined to keep raising the stakes with Microsoft’s ample resources to fuel its growth.
Current Accompli users should note that, according to Soltero, their “app and accounts will continue to work and the team will continue on our fast pace of improving and adding new functionality every couple of weeks.”
Slip of the Type
While you and I were busy prepping our Thanksgiving turkeys, Microsoft might have accidentally pre-announced its purchase of Acompli.
Acompli, according to its description in the Google Play store, is a mobile email app that allows you to easily attach files, swipe to delete or defer email and schedule meetings with a fully integrated calendar. It works with Gmail and Microsoft’s Exchange.
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Rumor of the acquisition was likely started by Mark Wilson of Beta News who noticed “a cryptic blog post that arrived via an RSS feed.” It led to a blank post titled “blank post, please delete” but seems to have originated on Microsoft’s corporate blog and (at some time) been authored by Rajesh Jha, the Microsoft vice president responsible for Office 365, and other products which include Exchange, Outlook and Outlook.com,
Check out the URL of the deleted post, especially the last three words:
The URL, as you can imagine, has now been deleted. Click on it and it will say something like “We're sorry, but we can't find the page you're looking for." If the acquisition actually happened, it’s a big win for all involved. The founders of Acompli would likely gain a nice pile of cash and Microsoft would be able to replace its tired mobile e-mail solutions with something we’d all get excited about.
Check out Acompli and you’ll likely hope the rumor is true.
