Microsoft acquires Wand Labs

Technology giant Microsoft corp. has acquired a messaging app developer founded by an Indian as the US based software firm aims to strengthen its position in the emerging era of combining the power of human language with advanced machine intelligence.

Microsoft acquired California based Wand Labs, a startup which builds messaging technology for apps, founded in 2013. Wand Labs technology and talent would strengthen Microsoft position in the emerging era of conversational intelligence where they bring together the power of human language with advanced machine intelligence, connecting people to knowledge, information, services and other people in more relevant and natural ways.

The acquisition builds on and extends the power of the Microsoft search Engine Bing, its cloud computing platform Azure, Office 365 and Windows platform to empower developers everywhere. Wand Labs expertise around services mapping, third party developer integration and conversational interfaces makes it a great fit to join the Bing Engineering and platform team.

Simplilearn acquired Market Motive

Bangalore based Simplilearn solutions Pvt. Ltd., the company behind online education and training destination for professional certification courses Simplilearn.com has acquired Silicon Valley based Digital Marketing Training firm Market Motive for $10 Million (Rs 62 crore). It will also help the company make further inroads in the US market.

The deal augments Simplilearn offerings in the booming digital marketing field with courses in social media marketing, digital advertising, web analytics, and marketing automation. Simplilearn, which raised $15 Million in its third round of funding in April to expand its reach in the US, trained more than 400,000 people and offers 250 courses from advanced cloud computing to Six Sigma and Big Data on its site.

With this acquisition, its offerings will include training and certification in digital marketing with courses web analytics and mobile marketing. California based Market Motive will continue to operate as an independent part of Simplilearn. Market Motive specializes in SEO, web analytics, social media marketing, conversion optimization, mobile marketing, PPC advertising, and content marketing.

In April, Simplilearn had secured $15 Million in series C funding by early stage investor Mayfield, with participation from existing investors Kalaari Capital and Helion Venture Partners. It had also secured $10 Million in a series B round of funding in September 2013 from Helion Venture partners and Kalaari Capital. In August 2012, it had bagged around $2 Million in Series A funding from Kalaari Capital.

Facebook buys TheFind.com

TheFind.com is a discovery shopping search Engine targeting lifestyle product such as apparel, accessories, home, and garden, fitness, kids and family and beauty. It was founded in 2006 as FatLens Inc., initially specializing in event tickets search but later expanding to product search. The site was re-launched as TheFind.com with an emphasis on discovery shopping search or lifestyle products.

TheFind is the only way to search the entire shoppable web. Its proprietary search engine lets you type in something you are looking to purchase like a white dress, or a specific type of chair, and it will return results from online retailers such as Target, Nordstrom, Zappos, Amazon, Etsy, eBay and more. If consumers want to search locally, TheFind can return results within their geographic activity.

Consumers can easily compare prices between different retailers and save themselves time by not having to scour each individual site. TheFind search engine will shut down as the company merges with its new owner. This service is used by more than 15 Million shoppers. Just last month, Facebook launched a special ad unit designed to highlight specific products a merchant is trying to sell. TheFind could help Facebook better match not just a company to a user, but make sure the products shown in the ads are things they are likely to buy.

TheFind.com is a privately held company in California, and received funding from Redpoint Ventures, Lightspeed venture partners, and Cambrian Ventures. In 2007, they received an additional $15 Million funding led by Bain Capital Ventures.

Facebook buys QuickFire

Facebook, the biggest social media platform in the world had recently bought QuickFire Networks Corp., who delivers video streams over the internet, as the social network makes video delivery a top priority. Facebook is second most watched video platform after YouTube in the world.

QuickFire announced the deal on their website and terms were not disclosed. The San Diego based startup will help Facebook show clips quickly without sacrificing as much of the quality, which will benefit Facebook as it boosts video delivery and expands the feature to emerging markets, where connections are slow.

The amount of video on Facebook news feed more than tripled last year, and the company is planning to tweak the website design so marketers can more easily buy video ads and monitor their campaigns. The efforts are central to the Menlo Park, California based company efforts to tap the US online video advertising market, which EMarketer Inc. estimates will reach $7.8 Billion this year, up 30 percent from $6 Billion in 2014.

One of Facebook main challenge in adding video is to the news feed is whether it will degrade the user experience by making users wait for videos to lead. The company already modifies clips so they can be played more easily, and video advertisements in news feed start automatically as users scroll past, without sound. Facebook has more than 1 Billion daily video views. Some of QuickFire will join Facebook, and the company will wind down operations as it becomes part of the larger company.