Talko will be integrated into Skype and SKype for Business

Dec 22, 2015 09:23 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has recently purchased Talko, the company founded by its former Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie, who left the firm in 2010.

The mobile messaging application will be integrated into Skype and Skype for Business, with the whole team working at Talko, except for its founder, to join Microsoft.

“I am pleased to announce today that Microsoft has acquired technology from Talko, maker of an innovative mobile app for on-the-go business communications. As part of the agreement, Talko employees will join the Skype team. Together, the new technology and talent will help us deliver great new features and capabilities in both Skype and Skype for Business,” Gurdeep Singh Pall, Corporate Vice President, Skype, has said in a post today.

The entire team, except the founder, will join Microsoft

The deal will be completed by March 2016, Microsoft announces, and existing users will be provided with options to export their conversations by the time the migration starts.

Talko is a mobile messaging app that allows customers, primarily enterprises, to communicate and collaborate by voice, while also offering options to record the entire conversation and share it with other contacts at a later time.

The company will, however, go dark following the acquisition, and Microsoft will integrate the application directly into its Skype platform. It’s not clear when Microsoft is planning to release updated Skype clients featuring functionality provided by Talko, but this is likely to happen after the deal is completed. As a result, expect such features in Skype to arrive in the second half of 2016.

The founder of Talko, however, won’t be rejoining Microsoft when the acquisition is closed, he has revealed in a statement for ZDNet.

“I remain a builder, and I love helping great product teams have broad impact with their work. Looking forward to figuring out what's next,” Ozzie is quoted as saying.