Rumor: Microsoft buys stylus manufacturer N-Trig for 176 million euros

Microsoft would have acquired the Israeli maker of digital pens and touchscreen chips N-trig, a business newspaper in Israel reports. N-trig is a competitor of Wacom, and Microsoft is using the company’s technology in its Surface Pro 3 tablet.

Microsoft would put an amount of at least 176 million euros on the table for N-Trig, claims the Israeli newspaper Calcalist. A large part of the staff would go to work at a Microsoft research department in Israel that will be engaged in research into touch technology.

The CEO of the Surface division at Microsoft, Panos Panay, told The Wall Street Journal earlier this week that the digital pen is an important part of the tablet in Microsoft’s eyes. More and more people would use a stylus, he claimed. According to him, the group’s further aim is to remove technical obstacles to writing with digital pens.

N-trig was founded in 1999 and now has 190 employees. Many laptop and tablet manufacturers have used N-trig’s pen technology in the past, such as Acer, Dell, and Fujitsu. Microsoft used a Wacom pen for the Surface Pro 2, but opted for N-trig for the Pro 3, which would enable thinner tablets in combination with a stylus.