Chalk in another acquisition for Microsoft. The company has purchased startup software firm LiveLoop, which developed a popular PowerPoint plugin. Of the same name.
LiveLoop turned presentations into web optimized files that could be accessed via a URL.
And while details of the agreement are yet to be provided, it is expected that it could become part of the Office productivity suite in some fashion — integrated, probably, to offer the same features without the need of installing the third-party plugin.
LiveLoop have released an official statement on their website, though:
“LiveLoop will be shutting down permanently on April 24th, 2015. New user registration and presentation upload have been disabled. Existing LiveLoop users: if you have any data you would like to retrieve from LiveLoop, please do so before April 24th. On April 24th, all presentations and user data will be permanently deleted.”
Microsoft is currently working on the next version of Office that is on track for launch later this year.
Remains to be seen whether LiveLoop will become part of the touch optimized version of the office productivity suite for smartphones and tablets, which is also in development for Windows, alongside the traditional desktop version.
We should find out in the coming months, either way.
