Microsoft acquires start-up id8 Group R2 Studios Inc: Reports
03 Jan 2013
Microsoft Corp has acquired start-up id8 Group R2 Studios Inc as it pushes further in technology focused on the home and entertainment, The Wall Street Journal quoted a person familiar with the situation as saying yesterday.
The firm which started operations in 2011 recently launched a Google Android application to allow users to control home heating and lighting sytems from smartphones.
The company was started Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor Blake Krikorian, whose Sling Media, which was snapped up by EchoStar Communications in 2007, made the " Slingbox" for watching TV on computers.
According to the newspaper, Krikorian would join Microsoft with a small team. Microsoft also purchased a number of patents owned by the firm related to electronic devices control, the newspaper added.
Krikorian quit Amazon.com Inc's board, late December after a stint of year and a half as a director at the company, the largest online retailer.
According to the grapevine, the Wall Street Journal reported, Microsoft was able beat Apple and Google and buy the home entertainment technology startup R2 Studios. The acquisition is expected to help boost Microsoft's Xbox platform.
The Wall Street Journal, said R2 Studios had been working on ways to display content on televisions, which probably aligned with Xbox's focus of adding TV entertainment to its gaming console.
The price of the acquisition has not been disclosed.
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