Microsoft Xbox Group Beats Apple and Google to Buy Secretive Start-Up
Microsoft acquires Blake Krikorian's remote controller start-up
"id8 Group R2 Studios Inc" is probably not a company you're hugely familiar with unless you've downloaded its Android app for controlling your heating... but Microsoft has just bought the company to bolster its Xbox/Kinect/Smartglass offering.
The WSJ reports that the "secretive startup founded by the man who popularized the Slingbox":
"...was created by entrepreneur Blake Krikorian in May 2011. Mr. Krikorian will be joining the Redmond, Wash., software giant with a small team. As part of the deal, Microsoft also acquired some patents owned by the startup related to controlling electronic devices."
Krikorian was responsible for Sling Media which enabled TV to be watched on PC via Slingbox, which he sold in 2007.
The WSJ states that, id8 had, "been in talks with companies considering buying it, people close to the company say, with Microsoft Corp, Google Inc and Apple Inc cited as participants."
A remote controller developer with home entertainment expertise for the Xbox 360 or 720 combining with Smartglass certainly looks like serious business.
The WSJ reports that the "secretive startup founded by the man who popularized the Slingbox":
"...was created by entrepreneur Blake Krikorian in May 2011. Mr. Krikorian will be joining the Redmond, Wash., software giant with a small team. As part of the deal, Microsoft also acquired some patents owned by the startup related to controlling electronic devices."
Krikorian was responsible for Sling Media which enabled TV to be watched on PC via Slingbox, which he sold in 2007.
The WSJ states that, id8 had, "been in talks with companies considering buying it, people close to the company say, with Microsoft Corp, Google Inc and Apple Inc cited as participants."
A remote controller developer with home entertainment expertise for the Xbox 360 or 720 combining with Smartglass certainly looks like serious business.
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