Reports on the internet from “very solid sources” are reporting that Microsoft spent $500 Million to pick up Danger. There’s still no word on exactly what the plans are for Danger, but one would assume that those will be on the way soon.

Microsoft spent a cool half a billion dollars ($500 million) on Danger, making it a nice payday for investors of the Sidekick maker. While some of the early investors got modest returns, I am told that the later-stage investors made out like bandits. It has been reported previously that the company had raised $134 million in venture backing, but in reality it’s closer to $225 million.

The deal’s big sticker price is intriguing — leading me to believe that Microsoft wants to pull an Xbox on its mobile phone business. Having realized that its traditional approach is going to relegate it to business market, Microsoft is taking a non-Microsoft tact, just like it did in the gaming console business. The reason for this deal is more than just acquiring “consumer expertise,” as the company kept repeating yesterday. Danger’s software-as-a-service technology can offer “Microsoft Services” such as Search, Windows Live Mail and Messenger on the Danger platform, using it to compete with Google Android.

Source: gigaom

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 at 3:43 pm and is filed under Danger, Microsoft, Rumors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.