Microsoft Acquires Financial App Maker Mobile Data Labs
Microsoft has announced plans to acquire finance app creator Mobile Data Labs to complement and increase its mobile offerings.
Mobile Data Labs is best known for its popular MileIQ app, which tracks the movements of its user and automatically records the mileage spent. There is a version for Android and iOS, but not for Windows Phone. That, of course, will quickly change.
MicrosoftMicrosoft Outlook and Office 365 corporate vice-president Rajesh Jha described the purchase — for an unreported sum — as a bid to “reinvent productivity and business process in a mobile-first, cloud-first world.”
“We’re thrilled to welcome Mobile Data Labs to the Microsoft family to work on new ways to improve the productivity to millions more mobile professionals,” Jha said in a blog post.
MileIQ has more than one million users and has been the top-grossing finance app in the iTunes store for 20 months straight.
According to Mobile Data Labs, its app, on average saves users $547 per month in business mileage deductions. It does this by using sensors in modern mobile devices to capture, log and calculate business miles.
And that is something Microsoft believes it can capitalize on.
“In the U.S. alone, there are more than 55 million small business employees, entrepreneurs and other mobile professionals,” Jha said. “This ‘self-directed workforce,’ as Mobile Data Labs calls them, are always seeking ways to reduce time and effort spent on administrative chores like mileage, expenses, time tracking and reimbursement.”
Mobile Data Labs CEO Chuck Dietrich said he and his team are “thrilled” to join the Microsoft team.
“By partnering with Microsoft, our horizon and momentum are now even bigger–and our ability to deliver excellent products, delightful experiences and personalized service is greater than ever,” he wrote in a blog post. “Under Satya Nadella’s leadership, Microsoft has been on a path of tremendous innovation; the people in the company feel it, the products show it and the market has responded. Microsoft’s ambition to reinvent personal productivity and business processes couldn’t be more aligned with our goals. With our shared passion and commitment to mobile productivity, the San Francisco-based MileIQ team aims to advance this mutual vision by continuing to build services for self-directed workers–services like MileIQ that are automated, intuitive and give users back time, money and peace of mind.”
Source: sitepronews
