Microsoft has purchased San Francisco-based LiveLoop for an undisclosed amount, according to sources.
LiveLoop builds collaboration tools for Microsoft Office. Its first product was LiveLoop for PowerPoint, which is a PowerPoint plug-in that allows an entire team to collaborate on a document simultaneously.
According to the explanation on the Web site, "LiveLoop converts presentations into Web URLs that can be viewed from any computer or phone *without* installing any software," or using Web-hosting services for online meetings like GoToMeeting.
A notice on LiveLoop's corporate Web site says that LiveLoop will be shutting down on April 24, but doesn't say why.
The full wording of the notice:
"LiveLoop will be shutting down permanently on April 24th, 2015. New user registration and presentation upload have been disabled.
"Existing LiveLoop users: if you have any data you would like to retrieve from LiveLoop, please do so before April 24th. On April 24th, all presentations and user data will be permanently deleted"
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A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed it bought the company.
LiveLoop is financially backed by venture capital firms New Enterprise Associates and Columbus Nova Technology Partners.
Microsoft has been buying up a number of smaller companies making productivity-related applications and services as of late, including e-mail startup Acompliand Android calendar vendor Sunrise. LiveLoop also is in the productivity category.
LiveLoop's first product would be a nice complement to the meeting- and collaboration-specific software and services that Microsoft is installing on its new Surface Hub videoconferencing system.
ZDNet
