Company Acquisition: Microsoft Acquired Music Player App By The Name "Groove"

Microsoft had just acquired a streaming music player app called Groove Smart Music Player. The acquisition follows Microsoft's decision to rebrand its music player and relaunched it by the name Groove. Previously, the tech giant's music player is called Xbox Music until it was rebranded last year.

When Microsoft rebranded its music streaming service as Groove, a Montreal-based startup called Zikera already have a music player under the same name, Groove. The app was also available in the Windows Store, the application store for Windows phones.

According to ZDNet, Microsoft had not made any statement then. The company had not mentioned acquiring the Zikera startup or whether Microsoft had bought the name or acquire the brand. The company had not comment on the matter even after it was reported that Microsoft bought two Groove-related domains from Zikera.

On Tuesday, Zikera announced on a Medium post that Groove has been officially acquired by Microsoft. The startup told the story of Groove's journey, also how and why it was born. The blog post also elaborated about the acquisition by Microsoft. "In light of this acquisition, Groove is no longer available for download, but current users may continue to use the app. Please note, however, that we are not submitting any more updates," the co-founders wrote. If new users try to access the Groove app, they will be redirected to Microsoft Groove, as reported by Beta Kit.

Zikera's Groove could learn users' personal music tastes and generate personalized playlists suggestions based on users' preferences. The app learns users' listening habits in order to concoct completely personalized playlists. Ever since the app was launched in 2009, more than 2 million users had downloaded it. Groove was a free app before it was admitted into the FounderFuel accelerator program in 2013. When the app became popular with more than one million downloads, it was shifted to a freemium model, restricting full access for free users.

The details of the acquisition deal were disclosed by both companies. However, Montreal in Technologyreported that after the acquisition, Groove's co-founder will not join Microsoft. However, they will continue to consult with the giant company during the post-acquisition period. Groove was founded by Tri Nguyen, Bruno Sylvain, and Eduard Lucic.

The acquisition was considered as a significant achievement for the Montreal-based startup. Although the details of the deal were not revealed, Zikera announced that they are thrilled that Groove has been acquired by a tech company as big as Microsoft. Microsoft did not only buy the app's name but will also incorporate some of its technology to its own music player.