News

Microsoft Acquires Productivity App Startup 6Wunderkinder

• By Kurt Mackie
• June 02, 2015

Microsoft on Tuesday announced its acquisition of 6Wunderkinder GmbH, a provider of list-making software based in Berlin.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but an article in The Wall Street Journal on Monday speculated that it amounted between $100 million and $200 million.

6Wunderkinder, which counts over 13 million users, produces Wunderlist Pro and Wunderlist for Business software products. The Wunderlist for Business app integrates with applications, adding a plus symbol to the bottom of an app that lets users build to-do lists and assign tasks to team members. The product works on Android, iOS and Windows platforms.

"The addition of Wunderlist to the Microsoft product portfolio fits squarely with our ambition to reinvent productivity for a mobile-first, cloud-first world," Microsoft said in its announcement of the purchase. "Building on momentum for Microsoft Office, OneNote and Skype for Business, as well as the recent Sunrise and Acompli acquisitions, it further demonstrates Microsoft's commitment to delivering market-leading mobile apps across the platforms and devices our customers use -- for mail, calendaring, messaging, notes and now tasks."

Microsoft announced the purchase of Acompli earlier this year, using its technology to create Outlook e-mail apps that work across various mobile operating system platforms. It later snapped up Sunrise Atelier to integrate its calendar technology into Outlook mobile apps.

6Wunderkinder and Sunrise Atelier had announced an integration effort back in May, as noted by the WSJ article. That effort enabled Wunderlist apps to surface inside Sunrise's calendar apps.

Christian Reber, founder and CEO of 6Wunderkinder, said back in February that users of the Wunderlist app were creating "10 million to-dos" every week and that there were "more than 90,000 teams using Wunderlist" in an "11-million strong community." He added that the company was planning to release Wunderlist apps for Android Lollipop and Windows 10 this year, as well as a new Wunderlist for Work product with business features, such as "activity logs, business-owned lists, a central dashboard, rights management and custom webhooks."

The WSJ article indicated that the 6Wunderkinder team will remain located in Berlin under the terms of the deal.

Nothing changes for current Wunderlist users, according to Microsoft's announcement:

Customers can expect the app to remain free in all of its existing markets. There will be no price changes for Wunderlist Pro or Wunderlist for Business customers and the service will continue to support a wide range of third-party apps and integrated services.