Microsoft acquires Wand Labs to conjure up some chat bot magic
SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) – Microsoft is one of the biggest companies in the world with pretty much every workplace using Teams or another type of technology they own or have created. But just because they are already a huge global company doesn’t mean they want to stop pushing boundaries and growing even more. This is why they announced on Thursday the acquisition of Wand Labs, a California-based messaging app developer founded by IIT-Delhi alum Vishal Sharma in 2013.
“I am pleased to announce that Microsoft has acquired messaging app developer Wand Labs. This acquisition accelerates our vision and strategy for Conversation as a Platform, which Satya Nadella introduced at our Build 2016 conference in March,” David Ku, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President, Information Platform Group said, in a statement.
Terms of the Wand Labs deal have yet to be disclosed, but the move is just a small part of Microsoft’s larger plan to bring together the power of human language with advanced machine intelligence. Microsoft seeks to connect people to knowledge, information, services and other people in more relevant and natural ways.
“The Wand team’s expertise around semantic ontologies, services mapping, third-party developer integration and conversational interfaces make them a great fit to join the Bing engineering and platform team, especially with the work we’re doing in the area of intelligent agents and chat bots,” Ku added.
The addition will also help Microsoft expand its cloud computing platform, Azure, Office 365 and Windows platforms. Meaning now may be a good time to consider upgrading to these Microsoft platforms. By utilizing tools like an Office 365 License Manager there may be opportunities to save time and money with the licensing process. The addition of Wand Labs will also most likely strengthen Microsoft’s presence in the software market as well. With people taking things like the ms-900 exam in order for them to become more proficient in things like Office 365, the market has never been bigger for Microsoft and people who want to make a career out of their software.
In a statement of his own, Sharma said he is excited to join a Microsoft team that shares his passion and enthusiasm for technology.
“I’m proud of the work my team has done and what we’ve already accomplished in this emerging space – and I’m delighted to be joining a company that shares our passion and enthusiasm for this new era where conversation is the central focus. Making experiences for customers more seamless by harnessing human language is a powerful vision and one that motivates me and my team,” Sharma said.
Wand Labs will shut down its service and its employees will be integrated into Microsoft’s Bing and Cortana teams.
