Microsoft has acquired the Sunrise calendar application in a deal worth over $100 million, a report revealed today. The buyout may be the next step in the company’s plans to revamp its mobile offerings, which started with the release of the new Outlook email app—also based on acquired software—last month.
Like Acompli, Sunrise works with a variety of services, not just Microsoft’s. Those services include Google’s calendar service, iCloud calendars, and, of course, Exchange. It also had built-in support for reminders that sync along with the calendars.
Sunrise packs in some additional features similar to Apple’s first-party solution, such as integrated mapping to help you get to your events. Social events from Facebook and contacts’ birthdays can also be displayed, and LinkedIn connectivity provides more information about the people you’re meeting up with.
It seems likely that Sunrise will be relaunched with new Microsoft branding relatively soon. It will certainly be interesting to see where Microsoft takes its mobile software strategy next.
Update 2/11: Microsoft confirms reported acquisition in YouTube video interview with Sunrise CEO.
