Xobni says no to Microsoft
May 2nd, 2008 | by rey |
Xobni would have been just another start-up acquisition to add to Microsoft’s trophy case. But after weeks of negotiations and signing a letter of intent to be acquired, the Xobni folks have left the table and the building.
Microsoft has a habit of buying out these small companies to add to its talent pool, for a technology boost, or to increase market capitalization.
This time they supposedly wanted Xobni’s technology as a feature for their email management software Outlook. Xobni already offers a plugin for Outlook that adds useful features like automatically grabbing a contact’s phone number from their signature or showing you how your contacts are connected to one another like this guys his boss and she’s his secretary…
It seems the Xobni group got the willies about the deal, which would have meant getting 20 million dollars richer, when Microsoft wasn’t too forthcoming about its plans for the team or it’s technology. They probably had better plans than just ending up as a feature in the latest Outlook iteration or worse yet part of an MS Office Service pack.
The service currently has 50,000 users and is still in beta. To learn more about it visit Xobni here.
Update: Starting today May 5, Xobni is no longer a limited, invitation only, Beta but is now publicly available for download. Head over here to download and get the latest update. For more news on the launch visit this New York Times post.
