Microsoft Acquires Sunrise Calendar App for $100 Million: Report

TechCrunch says the company has paid at least $100 million (approximately Rs. 618 crores) for the app maker. The report further adds that the company plans to keep the Sunrise Calendar app as a standalone product while will use its technology in future products. Microsoft, however, has declined to comment on the acquisition claims.

For the uninitiated, the Sunrise Calendar app has been made for Google Calendar, iCloud and Exchange services. It is available on OS X, iPhone, iPad and Android devices, apart from offering a Web client. On Google Play, the Sunrise Calendar app (at the time of writing) had around 500,000-1,000,000 downloads, while on the App Store no download figures have been provided, it has received rave reviews. It's worth noting that Sunrise doesn't offer a dedicated Windows Phone app.

"Users can access their calendars from Google, iCloud, and Microsoft Exchange, as well as connecting to a wide range of other third-party apps. That cross-device and cross-platform support has helped it gain significant traction among users," the report notes.

Microsoft's move to buy the Sunrise app seems to be in-line with what the company did with its acquisition of Acompli, the mobile email management application. Redmond giant launched the new Outlook app based on the popular app made by Acompli, which Microsoft bought in December, and it allows iPhone and iPad users much easier ways of linking email to calendars and working with file attachments.

Microsoft has been lately pushing its services across various platforms such as Android and iOS. Last year, the company released an iPad version of its popular Office software suite including Word, Excel, PowerPoint apps, followed by the release of the Office apps on Android tablets late last month.

So far there is no further information whether Microsoft will launch a re-branded Sunrise calendar app.