Microsoft buys SwiftKey

SwiftKey was started eight years ago by two buddies and now the company reached a whole new level as Microsoft announced it entered into a definitive agreement to buy them. Although they are widely known for the SwiftKey predictive keyboard software, the company also specializes in adaptive learning algorithms that predict human behavior and can be used for multiple purposes.

According to Microsoft's blog post, SwiftKey's software "powers more than 300 million Android and iOS devices" and it became this popular after launching in 2010 on Android and three years later on iOS. The users of this app apparently saved around 10 trillion keystrokes across 100 different languages, reclaiming a total of 100,000 years that would have been wasted typing otherwise.

Microsoft promised to share more about integrating SwiftKey technology with Word Flow for Windows in the coming months but did not offer any other details. While none of the two companies has revealed the financial terms of the deal so far, The Financial Times claims the figure is around $250 million.