Wunderlist Founder Wants His App Back from Microsoft
The founder of the company that created the Wunderlist app has a new item on his public to-do list: persuade Microsoft to sell him back the app.
Christian Reber was the founder and CEO of 6Wunderkinder and sold the company to Microsoft in 2015 for an estimated $100 million to $200 million.
"Still sad @Microsoft wants to shut down @Wunderlist, even though people still love and use it. I'm serious @satyanadella @marcusash, please let me buy it back. Keep the team and focus on
@MicrosoftToDo, and no one will be angry for not shutting down @Wunderlist," Reber tweeted on Friday from his @christianreber account to the official accounts of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Marcus Ash, Microsoft's general manager for tasks in Berlin.
At the time of the June 2015 sale, the Berlin-based company claimed about 13 million users for the Wunderlist Pro and Wunderlist for Business software products.
Asked in a Twitter reply whether he was serious about proposing a business deal in a tweet rather than through direct communication with Microsoft executives, Reber replied, "Serious offer."
As of Monday, original Tweet had 575 retweets and 2,400 likes.
The writing was on the wall for Wunderlist in April 2017, when Microsoft released a preview of a new Microsoft To-Do Office 365 application that was to eventually include Wunderlist capabilities. At the time, Microsoft indicated that their eventual aim was to retire the Wunderlist app.
It's unclear what Microsoft's actual timeframe is for discontinuing Wunderlist. In a tweet (in German) last year after leaving Microsoft, Reber revealed that Microsoft was having technical difficulties in porting Wunderlist's back end from Amazon Web Services to Microsoft Azure.
In any event, Microsoft can now add a Twitter-based business offer to its list of tasks related to closing down Wunderlist.
Posted by Scott Bekker on 09/09/2019 at 9:27 PM