Microsoft acquires app development platform Xamarin

Microsoft has signed an agreement with Xamarin for an acquisition. Xamarin is the creator of a development environment in which apps can be created for different platforms in the C# programming language. Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed.

The Xamarin Platform makes it possible to develop apps in C# that run natively on iOS, Android, Mac and Windows. The acquisition fits in with Microsoft’s desire to bring more apps to its Windows 10 platform. The acquisition was announced by Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of the Cloud and Enterprise Group at Microsoft. In March 2014, there were already rumors that Microsoft wanted to take over the company.

Microsoft previously worked with Xamarin. For example, the platform was integrated into Visual Studio, Microsoft Azure, Office 365 and the Enterprise Mobility Suite. In 2014, Microsoft partnered with Xamarin to set up the .Net Foundation, a foundation to coordinate open source projects related to .Net.

Founded in 2011, Xamarin has offices in the US, London, Denmark, Singapore and Argentina with a total of approximately 350 employees. The company has 15,000 customers and more than 1.3 million developers use the platform. Guthrie says more future plans will be revealed at the Microsoft Build conference in March and at the Xamarin Evolve event in April. The deal should also be fully completed by then.