Bekker's Blog

Blog archive

Wunderlist App Creator Wants To Buy It Back from Microsoft

In 2015, 6Wunderkinder CEO Christian Reber sold his company to Microsoft for an estimated $100 million to $200 million.

Now, the founder of the company that created the Wunderlist app has a new item on his public to-do list: convince Microsoft to sell the app back to him.

"Still sad @Microsoft wants to shut down @Wunderlist, even though people still love and use it. I'm serious @satyanadella @marcusash, please let me buy it back. Keep the team and focus on
@MicrosoftToDo, and no one will be angry for not shutting down @Wunderlist," Reber Tweeted last week to the official accounts of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Marcus Ash, Microsoft's general manager for tasks in Berlin.

At the time of the June 2015 sale, the Berlin-based 6Wunderkinder claimed about 13 million users for the Wunderlist Pro and Wunderlist for Business software products.

Asked in a Twitter reply whether he was serious about proposing a business deal in a Tweet rather than through direct communication with Microsoft executives, Reber replied: "Serious offer."

As of Monday, original Tweet had 575 retweets and 2,400 likes.

The writing was on the wall for Wunderlist in April 2017, when Microsoft released a preview of a new Microsoft To-Do Office 365 application that was to eventually include Wunderlist capabilities. At the time, Microsoft indicated that its eventual aim was to retire the Wunderlist app.

It's unclear what Microsoft's actual timeframe is for discontinuing Wunderlist. In a Tweet (in German) last year after leaving Microsoft, Reber revealed that Microsoft was having technical difficulties porting Wunderlist's back end from Amazon Web Services (AWS) to Microsoft Azure.

In any event, Microsoft can now add a Twitter-based business offer to its list of tasks related to closing down Wunderlist.

Posted by Scott Bekker on September 09, 2019


Featured

  • Microsoft Appoints Althoff as New CEO for Commercial Business

    Microsoft CEO and chairman Satya Nadella on Wednesday announced the promotion of Judson Althoff to CEO of the company's commercial business, presenting the move as a response to the dramatic industrywide shifts caused by AI.

  • Broadcom Revamps VMware Partner Program Again

    Broadcom recently announced a significant update regarding its VMware Cloud Service Provider (VCSP) program, coinciding with the release of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0, a key component in Broadcom’s private cloud strategy.

  • Closeup of the new Copilot keyboard key

    Microsoft Updates Copilot To Add Context-Sensitive Agents to Teams, SharePoint

    Microsoft has rolled out a new public preview for collaborative "always on" agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, bringing enhanced, context-aware tools into Teams channels, meetings, SharePoint sites, Planner workstreams and Viva Engage communities.

  • Windows 365 Cloud Apps Now Available for Public Preview

    Microsoft announced this week that Windows 365 Cloud Apps are now available for public preview. This aims to allow IT administrators to stream individual Windows applications from the cloud, removing the need to assign Cloud PCs to every user.