According to reports from the Financial Times, Microsoft is acquiring popular predictive keyboard maker ‘Swiftkey’ for about $250m.
A source told Financial Times that there’s a war for talent in artificial intelligence — and companies like Google and Microsoft recognise the best talent is in the UK.
Initially, Swiftkey was a paid app before switching to a freemium app, letting its users pay to customise their keyboards with different themes. The company has over 300 million users on both Android and iOS, but SwiftKey has yet to find a reliable business model.
While $250 million seems to be a large sum, in fact it’s one of the the biggest acquisition for a UK-based tech company so far…Nonetheless, investors claim the sale price was lower than what they might have hoped for a couple of years ago.
Swiftkey has more than 150 employees in London, San Francisco and Seoul. Many are expected to join Microsoft Research. Both Microsoft and Swiftkey have declined to comment on this acquisition.
