“Microsoft Corp. has acquired a small home-entertainment technology startup to beef up its Xbox unit, according to people familiar with the matter,” Jessica E. Lessin and Shira Ovide report for The Wall Street Journal.
“The company, id8 Group R2 Studios Inc., was created by entrepreneur Blake Krikorian [and Slingbox founder] in May 2011. Mr. Krikorian will be joining the Redmond, Wash., software giant with a small team. As part of the deal, Microsoft also acquired some patents owned by the startup related to controlling electronic devices,” Lessin and Ovide report. “The price of the deal couldn’t be learned.”
Lessin and Ovide report, “The company, known as R2 Studios, has been working on technology related to distributing and displaying digital media on TVs, a big new battleground for technology giants. The Silicon Valley-based business also talked to Google Inc. and Apple Inc. about a possible deal, people familiar with the matter have said.”
Read more in the full article here.
Where Apple goes, Microsoft follows…
I was about to post that Apple should express interest in a Virus, so Microsoft can snatch that up to, but then I realized they already have Windows…
Apple needs to top kicking tires and just do the deals. Nothing wrong with MSFT doing what they did. If the deal was not good enough for Apple to close on then so be it but no doubt the vendor approached companies that could be interested to create a bidding war. Just good business on their part.
+1
it took 2 people to cover this story for the WSJ?
Must be really funny to be on apple BOD. Imagine how much fun they are having. They wake up in the morning and say “Hey, let’s pretend we are interested in this technology and watch what happens while we drink our coffee” and then thousands of rumors and stupid companies announcing new products based on that technology and one or two idiots buying other companies related to that technology.
I bet one day apple will pretend to be interested in making iPhones out of carved stone just for the fun on it.
I agree with Troy. I still believe this was ultimately Steve Job’s plan. He knew there was no innovation capability at many of the hardware competitors (Dell, HP, Lenovo-maybe). He also knew Microsoft had the intellectual capability…but could never execute anything very well.
It is like a good football running back juking a defender. They think you are headed right and you run by them on the left.
When you are a follower, you are always behind. This is why Apple is scoring touchdowns and the rest are always in punt formation.
So that’s Apple’s plan, show interest in companies forcing Microsoft to purchase them!
Seriously, though, remember the ad company Apple wanted was purchased from them? They ended up buying another and still creating iAd which I can say to this day are the only ads I ever click on as they’re very interesting examples of HTML 5 almost EVERY time.
Apple could buy anyone, really. They were interested in this company, I’m sure there’s an “also-ran” out there that will gladly take Apple’s money and they’ll STILL do something cool.
Wasn’t the ad company MS bought aQuantive, the one they took a massive write-off on last quarter, the write-off that caused MS to post the first negative quarter in their entire history?
Maybe Apple should feint some more crappy companies MS’s way.
I just read Cringely’s take on this from earlier this week. Apple was smart to pass. Microsoft overpaid.
http://www.cringely.com/2013/01/01/in-the-land-of-the-blind-krikorian-could-become-king/
Hey Microsoft, I have a bridge that Apple is interested in.
Apple should start expressing interest in a lot of companies so the competion can buy them up and have them waste more money chasing Apple.
Really, that is the only way Micrrosoft can learn is to guide them to a company, otherwise without help they would continue with XP or make another renamed Metro interface.
“Krikorian startup R2 Studios”
Ah, yes. I visited Krikoria once. I loved sitting in a cafe in Jymflasgc and eating fresh g’borscgfl. Nice to know these honest people are getting into the startup business.
——RM
> I loved sitting in a cafe in Jymflasgc and eating fresh g’borscgfl.
Bless you! My goodness!
Go Apple!
Monkey Boy see, Monkey Boy do.