Microsoft Reportedly Buys Mobile Calendaring Startup Sunrise

Microsoft's reported acquisition of Sunrise, a developer of increasingly popular calendaring apps, would represent another move from the world's largest software company toward a more open platform, one that should benefit partners.

News of the acquisition came Wednesday from TechCrunch, which reported that the software giant shelled out more than $100 million for the startup.

Sunrise, based in New York, develops popular apps that seamlessly integrate with other cloud-based calendaring products offered by Apple, Google and Microsoft, such as Exchange.

[Related: Amazon Web Services Takes Aim At Microsoft With New Cloud Email Service]

A Microsoft spokesman told CRN the company has no information to share "regarding these acquisition rumors."

Sunrise has done well in bringing to market a well-crafted tool featuring portability and compatibility characteristics of the kind once considered anathema to Microsoft: a cross-platform product that is device-agnostic.

For that reason, the reported acquisition would be another indicator of Microsoft's shifting strategy, said Logan McCoy, vice president of sales at CCB Technology, an IT solution provider based in Wisconsin that partners with Microsoft.

’I am very excited to see Satya’s mobile-first strategy being worked out through acquisitions like the recent one with Sunrise," McCoy told CRN, referring to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

"As we become a more mobile-centric workforce, applications like these are only going to better position Microsoft tools, like Office365, to integrate with and meet these growing needs,’ McCoy said.

TechCrunch also reported that Microsoft will keep offering Sunrise's apps independently as it integrates the technology into its own platform.

PUBLISHED FEB. 4, 2015