Microsoft buys Xamarin to help developers create cross-platform apps

BANGALORE: Microsoft Corp has agreed to acquire Xamarin Inc., a four-year-old San Francisco maker of software development tools, extending the software giant’s reach deeper into devices that don’t run its Windows operating system.

Xamarin, which sells tools to help developers who use Microsoft products build apps for Apple Inc.’s iOS and Google’s Android mobile operating systems, has raised $82 million in three funding rounds from venture-capital firms including Charles River Ventures, Floodgate, Ignition Partners, Insight Venture Partners and Lead Edge Capital.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, though a person close to the deal pegged the price at between $400 million and $500 million.

The Xamarin acquisition gives Microsoft a stronger presence on devices beyond those that run Windows, including mobile devices, a crucial goal as Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella tries to enhance the company’s relevance to developers who have largely turned their attention to mobile platforms from Apple and Google. With Xamarin now a part of the Microsoft family, Visual Studio developers can use a singe shared C# codebase to build native apps on iOS, Android and Windows. This would be welcome news for developers that are interested in building cross-platform native apps.