You might have heard the rumor before and it turns out to be true: the popular predictive keyboard SwiftKey is now officially part of Microsoft. The news was announced by the co-founders of the company, Jon Reynolds and Ben Medlock as well as by Harry Shum, the Executive Vice President, Technology and Research of Microsoft.

While both companies didn’t reveal the actual value of the deal, it was reported that Microsoft has paid around USD 250 million (approximately RM 1.05 billion) to acquire SwiftKey. Despite the acquisition, Jon and Ben promised that their focus will not change and SwiftKey apps will continue to be available on Android as well as iOS without any charges.

The sentiment was also echoed by Microsoft in its announcement. That being said though, the company will also looking for ways to integrate SwiftKey across its product and services. In fact, Microsoft’s own Word Flow keyboard for Windows will be one of the first product to receive the integration with SwiftKey.

Founded around eight years ago before launching its Android app in 2010 before releasing an iOS version in 2014, it is certainly a huge milestone for the SwiftKey team. Nevertheless, we are more curious on how SwiftKey is going to transform under Microsoft as well as how Redmond-based company is really going take advantage of everything that SwiftKey will bring to the table.

(Source: SwiftKey, Microsoft, FT)