Messaging app developer was founded in 2013.
By Sreekanth A. Nair
Microsoft announced on Thursday that they have acquired California-based messaging app developer Wand Labs founded by IIT-Delhi alum Vishal Sharma in 2013.
“I am pleased to announce that Microsoft has acquired messaging app developer Wand Labs. This acquisition accelerates our vision and strategy for Conversation as a Platform, which Satya Nadella introduced at our Build 2016 conference in March,” David Ku, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President, Information Platform Group said, in a statement.
The terms of the deal are yet to be known. The acquisition is a part of the strategy of Microsoft to bring together the power of human language with advanced machine intelligence — connecting people to knowledge, information, services and other people in more relevant and natural ways, reported The Times of India.
“The Wand team’s expertise around semantic ontologies, services mapping, third-party developer integration and conversational interfaces make them a great fit to join the Bing engineering and platform team, especially with the work we’re doing in the area of intelligent agents and chat bots,” Ku said.
It will also help Microsoft expand its cloud computing platform Azure, Office 365 and Windows platforms and strengthen its presence in the software market.
Describing the Indian American Vishal Sharma a unique talent and a well-respected thought leader in the area, Microsoft is hopeful that his team can make significant contributions to our innovation of Bing intelligence in this new era of Conversation as a Platform.
Sharma said that he is delighted to join a company that shares his passion and enthusiasm.
“I’m proud of the work my team has done and what we’ve already accomplished in this emerging space – and I’m delighted to be joining a company that shares our passion and enthusiasm for this new era where conversation is the central focus. Making experiences for customers more seamless by harnessing human language is a powerful vision and one that motivates me and my team,” he said in a statement.
Wand Labs will shut down its service and its employees will be integrated into Microsoft’s Bing and Cortana teams.