14 DAY TRIAL // The holiday shopping season officially starts today, and it appears that even Microsoft decided to buy itself a nice gift this fall.
The company accidentally confirmed in a blog post, which has since been removed, that it purchased email startup Acompli, a firm that focuses on email services for professionals and currently available on iOS and Android.
No official announcement is available so far, but it looks like we're not very far from one, given the fact that Microsoft sort of confirmed the acquisition in the aforementioned blog post on its blog.
Quickly removed announcement
Here's what happened in the last 24 hours on the Microsoft blog. For starters, the company posts each big announcement, no matter if it involves a takeover, product launch, of special deal, on its official blog, and the post is then highlighted on the main Microsoft.com website.
This time, an incomplete post showed up on the blog, but the responsible Microsoftie moved very fast and removed it from the page. The post was signed by Microsoft Corporate Vice President Rajesh Jha and was entitled “blank post please delete,” while the body included the very same line as the title.
Even though Microsoft removed the post so quickly, the RSS feed was still updated, so those who were subscribed to the RSS still got to see this error.
And here's when the surprising thing comes out. The article submitted to the RSS feed gets users to a page called “Microsoft acquires Acompli,” which isn't yet available and appears to be created for a possible announcement of the acquisition.
Microsoft hasn't yet explained what happened, so it's hard to say whether this is just someone's error or a smart marketing stunt to reveal the acquisition.
What's Acompli?
Acompli's name might not say too much to many of you, but this is a company that focuses on the creation of an email client specifically designed for what it calls “professionals.” The app comes with features that allow users to quickly find emails in the inbox in a few seconds, and offers support for both Android and iOS.
Acompli is short of cash these days, and after raising $7.3 million (€6.5 million), Microsoft's acquisition definitely comes at the right time.
Obviously, it'll be very interesting to see if Microsoft wants to use Acompli to enhance its email service in some way or simply take over the company to improve its offering for Android and iOS users.
