Microsoft Buys German To-Do List Startup 6Wunderkinder

http://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-buys-german-to-do-list-startup-6wunderkinder-1433177558?mod=yahoo_hs&ref=yfp

by abetaha • 11 years ago

293 132 11 years ago

wsj.com

ucha• 11 years ago

They were bought for <2M while they received 24M in funding? Am I missing something?

byoung2• 11 years ago

There must be a typo in the article. Maybe it should be $100-$200 million?

EDIT: I just emailed the author and it was a mistake. I'm still seeing the old numbers on the site though.

eps• 11 years ago

Yup, this seems to align with earlier speculation - http://venturebeat.com/2015/05/21/microsoft-is-almost-certai...

radley• 11 years ago

The actual price is $100M - 200M.

https://twitter.com/Amirmizroch/status/605428008611160064

troymc• 11 years ago

If you're a user of DuckDuckGo, here's a quick way to get to the full-text of the WSJ article:

!gn "Microsoft Buys German To-Do List Startup 6Wunderkinder"

(!gn is the Google News !bang)

wil421• 11 years ago

If you Google the title of the article you can find the news source and click on the link without hitting paywalls.

The person who submitted the article still had some of the referrer links, mod=yahoo_hs&ref=yfp was at the end of the article's URL submission.

lawl• 11 years ago

For everyone not using DDG, click trough here: https://news.google.com/news/search?q=%22Microsoft%20Buys%20...

frik2• 11 years ago

US based headquarters cannot transfer money from foreign sister companies back to US without paying tax, so they buy foreign companies.

Wunderlist seems like one of many todo list apps: https://www.wunderlist.com/

frik2• 11 years ago

Offtopic: Speaking about Microsoft, I just noticed a "Windows 10" advertisement in my Windows 7 taskbar next to the clock. Windows update silently installs and launches new applications (two executable) and one of them comes with enabled Telemetry. 23MB big ad-program is located in C:\Windows\System32\GWX\. Check your Windows 7/8 taskbar.

Source: http://venturebeat.com/2015/05/31/microsoft-starts-prompting...

https://support.microsoft.com/de-at/kb/3035583/en-us

@downvoters: even if it's offtopic, see at least the source

knodi1232• 11 years ago

Also offtopic, but everybody really should be brushing twice a day, for a full 2 minutes each time. And flossing.

nightski• 11 years ago

I wouldn't really call it an "ad" in the revenue generating sense.

They are notifying you that you can get Windows 10 for free. This program lets you do that in a couple clicks and is very convenient.

JonoW• 11 years ago

"Offtopic" was a wee bit of an understatement there

kolbe2• 11 years ago

I feel like, if your goal is to get bought by Apple, Google or Microsoft (or a pharma company, for that matter), it would be wise to incorporate in a country where they can use their offshore cash to buy you. Maybe Americans can start getting in on it.

toomuchtodo• 11 years ago

"Tax haven support as a service"

jarmitage• 11 years ago

Microsoft also bought Sunrise calendar recently, who a few weeks ago announced compatibility features with Wunderlist.

An interesting play from Microsoft. I wonder if it's one individual within the company who is pushing in this space. I also wonder if they will shutter both companies and integrate, or do what Facebook did with Instagram etc.

cwyers• 11 years ago

Microsoft rebranded Acompli, because they already had a strong brand in Outlook, but has left Sunrise alone, presumably because they don't have a strong calendar brand of their own (unless they just plan on making Sunrise into Outlook Calendar). I suspect that Wunderlist will either stay Wunderlist or become Outlook Tasks or somesuch.

ArekDymalski• 11 years ago

While I could understand buying Sunrise calendar for the userbase, this acquisition is surprising in that matter.

blumkvist• 11 years ago

You got it wrong. This is for the userbase. Sunrise was for the team and functionality.

testingonprod• 11 years ago

The apps that Microsoft has been buying recently are just incredibly top notch. Sunrise, Accompli, and now Wunderlist?!? Crazy good best-in-class products.

ams6110• 11 years ago

Most startup apps are failures. Buying the ones that have already made it through that initial filter makes sense.

mttddd• 11 years ago

They bought a tool called Equivio too, i work in the ediscovery/legal world and it was very rapidly becoming the industry standard. My understanding is Microsoft is going to integrate alot of the functionality into office/outlook, theres a lot of uncertainty as to what will replace it.

Maybe time to pick up some stock hah they seem to be making succesful purchases that make sense vs "diworsification"

tw04• 11 years ago

I have to disagree on best in class. Wunderlist was a pig on desktop, and they killed the desktop app entirely for Windows7. I far prefer todoist.

I also think Tempo is head and shoulders above Sunrise after spending significant time with both. I can't find the value in a calendar app that lacks the ability to dial a conference call number in 2015.

orangechicken• 11 years ago

Unfortunately you'll only be able to use Tempo until June 30th. They've been acquired by Salesforce and are discontinuing Tempo (at least in its current form…)

spyder• 11 years ago

Yea, Minecraft for sure was a top Notch ;)

return0• 11 years ago

"Cortana, tell me my wunderlist"

neokya2• 11 years ago

For the record, 6Wunderkinder (Wunderlist) is one of the the poster boys of (over hyped?) Berlin as startup hub http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-best-tech-startups-in-germ....

ethanbond• 11 years ago

Overhyped as compared to what, Silicon Valley?

SwellJoe3• 11 years ago

Every startup hub is overhyped compared to Silicon Valley, but a $100-$200 million exit for a todo list app maker certainly makes it slightly less over-hyped.

ChuckMcM• 11 years ago

Congrats to the Wunderlist team.

And oh crap, one of my favorite startup quotes was "Nobody got rich making a Todo list App." That is in danger of being falsified :-)

It is interesting to consider Microsoft's putative strategy here which is that the mobile "OS" is still searching for the right mix of capabilities to completely replace laptops.

phlyingpenguin2• 11 years ago

And oh crap, one of my favorite startup quotes was "Nobody got rich making a Todo list App." That is in danger of being falsified :-)

Ehh, Yahoo bought Astrid a while ago and closed it. The price wasn't announced, but I imagine they did well. My heart still pangs for the long-dead Astrid app, and I'm just that much less likely to use any Yahoo service because of that murder.

Narretz• 11 years ago

Yeah, I tried Wunderlist after Astrid shut down, and I much preferred Astrid. A damn shame it got shut down.

NSAID• 11 years ago

You may be interested in "Tasks", an open source replacement for Astrid. I don't believe it does everything Astrid did, but it has worked wonderfully for my needs.

https://github.com/tasks/tasks https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.tasks

jotm• 11 years ago

I was wondering what happened to them. WTF, Yahoo...

pjbrunet2• 11 years ago

I was upset when they killed http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyBlogLog ;-)

100k• 11 years ago

Tell that to DHH.

lcedp• 11 years ago

how is DHH related?

mcescalante• 11 years ago

I'm really interested to see what their plan is after also acquiring Sunrise recently. It seems like they're not actually changing these services much, and I'm fascinated to see how they actually integrate them with their businesses.

basch• 11 years ago

In outlook desktop, the navigation options are: Mail, Calendar, People, Tasks, Notes, Folders, Shortcuts.

They just bought a Mail, Calendar, and Tasks app. They have OneNote, and Folders and Shortcuts don't translate into apps. Looks like they still need a People app to manage contacts better.

kinkora• 11 years ago

While not always the case, microsoft seems to be going down a rare acquisition path: actually integrating the acquired company into their offerings.

A case in point is Acompli. It was an android app that I absolutely love and after Microsoft acquired them, I was scared that they will discontinue the app but they simply rebranded the Acompli app as the Microsoft Outlook for Android app and only did minor tweaks to the application.

I wouldn't be surprise if they integrate all their recent acquisitions into a full PDA-suite of applications for your mobile.

arikrak• 11 years ago

Tell that to Asana.

DonHopkins• 11 years ago

TODO:

1) Make Todo list App.

2) ???

3) Sell to Micro$oft!

dmix• 11 years ago

Microsoft backing Cyanogenmod, bringing Cortana to Android, and now acquiring productivity apps...

Looks like they are making a strong play to compete with Siri/Google Now which will be critical to the future of these big tech corps. Once AI gets better, everyone will want a 'smart assistant' helping them organize their day.

That will likely heavily influence which OS customers choose in the future as the data sensors need to sync across platforms to be really effective (desktop->mobile->watch->car etc).

helyka• 11 years ago

As a Windows user with an iPhone I am very happy that they are bringing Cortana to iOS. I like unifying my environment, but I don't want to buy a new device to do that.

bad_user2• 11 years ago

Given the shitty experience I've been having with OneCloud on OS X, or with Office on Android, I kind of doubt that the experience will be any good.

castell• 11 years ago

I wonder if Microsoft allows third party Cortana-like personal assistants in Windows 10? Android is quite open in every aspect, something what Windows was always well known for.

josep2• 11 years ago

By far my favorite To-Do List app. Microsoft purchased my favorite Calendar app a few months ago. What will be next?

creativityhurts• 11 years ago

They also bought Acompli and then released Outlook for iOS. They're on a roll.

robotresearcher• 11 years ago

Solitaire.

theallan• 11 years ago

How do big companies make the initial approach? Do you get a phone call out of the blue from someone at Microsoft saying "We are interesting in acquiring you - how does x million sound?" (I know I've grossly over simplified!).

QuercusMax• 11 years ago

Pretty much how it worked with Mojang. Notch joke-tweeted that he was ready to sell, and the Mojang CEO got a call from Microsoft within minutes.

http://www.polygon.com/2015/3/3/8144453/minecraft-sale-micro...

Nicholas_C2• 11 years ago

From talking with the corp dev guys at my company it sounds like they (the corp dev guys) get pitched via email and make calls to companies they're interested in.

rgovind2• 11 years ago

Someone from big C(M&A division?) typically calls you and says "We would like to explore if it is possible to we can work together". As part of it, they may ask you to do a small project for them, asap (This is to test your speed of execution. I believe it happened in case of Google Docs). If they like it, they will ask for company financials/Growth numbers etc

Source: Reading many articles

nedwin3• 11 years ago

Recently went through this.

They first reach out for some kind of "we're looking to do something in this space and wanted to discuss working with you". Our first conversation was along the lines of "We're not sure whether we're going to build this, partner with someone or buy something. Keen to find out more about what you guys are doing and see if we can work together".

Next meeting it went to "We're clearly not going to build this ourselves, and it doesn't make sense to partner but let's talk about what it would look like if we acquired you. How do you think your tech/team would work inside our company".

Took maybe 6 meetings in total to get to a price though we probably could have forced that sooner.

pkaye2• 11 years ago

What kind of details do they ask before giving an offer? Anything that might be considered proprietary or were they eager from the go?

bkurtz13• 11 years ago

There should really have to be a (paywall) warning added to the titles of posts like this.

satyajeet23• 11 years ago

I really liked this app. One of my fav. RIP Wunderlist.

Yhippa• 11 years ago

When I started using Sunrise I saw all these things you could connect to it one of which was Todoist. I really love what Todoist has done for to-do lists. I am less of a fan of Wunderlist because it doesn't have quite the features of Todoist that I'm looking for and fear that they're going to be doing better integration with Wunderlist.

vegashacker• 11 years ago

It would be nice if this results in the Pro features becoming free.

jkcl• 11 years ago

How would it be run as a sustainable business then? Sorry, but I really fail to understand how we can expect quality for free. Free means that it's either run as a hobby (you shouldn't make it part of your workflow as it might disappear one day) or run on ads (lower quality by implication).

Why not support your favourite apps by paying a little so the good folk can continue working on it!

grmarcil• 11 years ago

Or option 3, be a goliath sized company (eg Microsoft) and run the app as a loss leader to consolidate/establish a position as a market leader in mobile.

derefr• 11 years ago

The same way OneNote is free: as a loss-leader that hooks you into the Office ecosystem.

pavlov• 11 years ago

When they integrate it into OneNote, they can rename it OneDerlist. <ba-da-ching>

edvinbesic• 11 years ago

Wundernote for Microsoft Phone 10 for Business

mynameisvlad• 11 years ago

Windows Mobile 10*

(Which is completely different than the old Windows Mobile brand, obviously)

pcunite• 11 years ago

If you're reading this post, and you work with Microsoft ... contact me.

kpennell• 11 years ago

Dang, I really love Wunderlist. Hope MSFT only makes it better! I wish I could drop a list in it more easily. I use it as a shopping list.

jdhendrickson• 11 years ago

Wunderlist is integral to our companies business processes and it was a fight to get everyone moved onto it, I can only hope Microsoft has a hands off approach to the app and continues to let them create a best in class application.

sk8ingdom• 11 years ago

This is sadly the cost of using non open source technology. Once it sells to a larger company, the fate is uncertain and your data is locked in.

downandout2• 11 years ago

Everytime I run into the WSJ paywall I want to throw things. Yes it is easy to get around but no we shouldn't have to. Because advertising.

Anyway does anyone know approximately how many users this app had? Seems like a pretty rich valuation for a to-do list app.

robhu2• 11 years ago

If you're often running in to the WSJ paywall that means their content is often good, and they fund that content through subscriptions. Their competitors, who you're not running in to very often are not funded through subscriptions.

Maybe subscriptions lead to higher quality content?

dragonwriter2• 11 years ago

If you're often running in to the WSJ paywall that means their content is often good,

Doesn't follow. It does mean its often get linked in places that I read, but that doesn't mean its good.

Their competitors, who you're not running in to very often

That was never stated and is an unreasonable assumption.

Just because one isn't running into competitors paywalls (because other sources often don't have such a thing) doesn't mean one is not running into the competitors far more often than the WSJ.

Nicholas_C2• 11 years ago

Anyway does anyone know approximately how many users this app had?

10M

briandear• 11 years ago

Do you run Adblock?

easytiger2• 11 years ago

Can we please stop posting paywalled content?

http://www.slashgear.com/microsoft-tipped-to-buy-6wunderkind...

downandout2• 11 years ago

A happy medium might be to post a link to the Google search for the title. Clicking on the WSJ link from the result will bypass the paywall. Also I'm not necessarily trying to knock the poster or suggest spamming on the part of WSJ, but he or she has an awful lot of WSJ paywalled posts here [1].

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=abetaha

danw3• 11 years ago

Looks an awful lot like spam to me.

tomkin• 11 years ago

I said a similar thing a few days ago, but was ridiculed for it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9625769

manis404• 11 years ago

But now who's having the last laugh, EH?

why-el• 11 years ago

I guess you are not using "Wait! Google Sent Me" chrome extension? (assuming you are using chrome)

mparramon• 11 years ago

Here's how you can get your data out of Wunderlist, in case you're thinking on migrating:

http://www.developingandstuff.com/2015/03/export-list-from-w...

leejoramo• 11 years ago

Wanderlust did recently release an API, looks like you can now access lists in a more formal way: http://developer.wunderlist.com/documentation/endpoints/list

bsg75• 11 years ago

I hope that MS treats these acquisitions seriously.

Sunrise is lagging a bit on the Mac dekstop - it still cannot connect to Exchange - and the mobile first craze is starting to look like desktop becoming a never reached second.

Desktop and mobile integration is where I believe success lies, and hope that Wunderlist (and Sunrise) continue to be universally usable.

rgovind2• 11 years ago

Honest question : I thought there are many ToDO list startups Why is this still an unsolved problem?

dragonwriter2• 11 years ago

Because a 'todo list' isn't a problem, its a piece (but only a piece) of a solution to a variety of problems, which don't all have the same solution (even for any given user that has multiple of the problems that todo lists are a component of a solution for.)

prawn• 11 years ago

Agreed. And it's why, even though it's another play in a crowded space, a friend and I built yet-another-to-do-app. I've tried loads of them, but go back to pen and paper every time.

However, for one subset of the to-do world (regular habits), I think an app can consistently help. I've been using our beta for a couple of months and have stuck with it. (Link in profile if you're interested.)

I think us pen-and-paper types might finally be swayed when AR/VR is stronger and we can interact with our to-do items quickly in a more organic way - moving them around, easily prioritising, associating sketches, etc.

ylem• 11 years ago

I actually really liked their user interface. I wonder if the app will continue to exist or if it's time to migrate...

amelius3• 11 years ago

How much revenue did they generate last year?

Artemis2• 11 years ago

I'm so happy for the guys at 6Wunderkinder! I have seen them struggle with Wunderkit, which was eventually dropped as a product. Time for payback!

amelius3• 11 years ago

Can anybody enlighten me on the technical difficulties of writing a todo list manager?

nkohari• 11 years ago

Adoption rates. Not everything is a technical problem.

amelius3• 11 years ago

More adoption => more sales => more money => more resources. So, frankly, I don't see the problem there.

tdietrich• 11 years ago

"The idea is to get users hooked on great apps and services made by Microsoft, with the hope those people will eventually make the jump to Windows computers, phones, and tablets."

Good luck with that.

xer0x• 11 years ago

Congrats wunderkinder. You guys are awesome. gg ms.

justinmayer• 11 years ago

In case this news makes you feel like it's time to move on, here's a link describing how to delete your Wunderlist account: https://support.wunderlist.com/customer/portal/articles/1641...

jimmygraham• 11 years ago

Microsoft is quickly acquiring an impressive suite of apps.

coldtea• 11 years ago

One thing I don't see mentioned here that might be of interest to some people.

James Duncan Davidson had left SF to work in Berlin for Wunderlist a year or so ago, so is part of the team that was acquired.

For those not familiar with the name, he was quite famous for us working in Java land back in the day. He worked at SUN and created the first versions of Tomcat and Ant.

He was also an O'Reilly author, with books such as Learning Cocoa with Objective-C, Cocoa in a Nutshell (and also wrote the Agile Web Development with Rails book for the the Pragmatic Programmers editions).

He's also quite famous as a photographer (his other job), covering many O'Reilly conferences, Apple events, TED and such. Some very iconic tech related pictures from such events are his.

[EDIT] Another thing I don't see mentioned. This is not just a TODO list app. It's more of like MS buying their own "Slack".

sleazebreeze• 11 years ago

I believe Chad Fowler of the Passionate Programmer is the CTO at Wunderlist as well.

vivekian2• 11 years ago

I love Wunderlist especially because it works on my work Linux desktop, home Macbook, iPhone and what not.

I wonder what does this entail for users like me? Is MS going to leave the app as it is or is it going to be integrated into something else?

ing33k• 11 years ago

I use Wunderlist on daily basis, hope they will maintain its simplicity.

TomAnthony• 11 years ago

Likewise. I tried a lot of different todo list and organiser apps out over the years and finally Wunderlist was the one that really stuck.

I love it and recommend it frequently. Losing it would be a bummer.

On the flip-side: maybe they'll make a tile for my Microsoft Band now! :)

raindev• 11 years ago

Okay. I'm migrating my Wunderlist lists to plain text now.

Microsoft Buys German To-Do List Startup 6Wunderkinder

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