Microsoft acquires Groove for iOS

Microsoft today announced that the company is acquiring Zikera’s Groove app for iOS. The acquisition is probably a small one for the software giant as they probably weren’t interested in Groove’s tech. It seems like Microsoft wanted to avoid lawsuits from Zikera’s Groove as the company also launched a music service called “Groove” recently.

In a statement, Zikera stated:

Our journey started back in the days of the iPod. While it was a thing of beauty, we still struggled to choose what to play from our beloved music collection. From that instant, we envisioned a music player so intelligent that learns our tastes and habits in order to play the right music at the right time. Then Groove was born, and you made it a success. We are incredibly proud to have delighted you with a rich mobile experience and countless hours of music bliss through the tens of millions of personalized playlists we generated.

The Groove app from Zikera will no longer available for download, but existing users can continue to use the app. It isn’t clear if the Zikera team will work on improving Microsoft Groove’s apps for iOS and Android – but, it’ll be interesting to see if the team at Zikera gets to work on the iOS and Android app as Microsoft’s Groove on these platforms aren’t really great.