LiveLoop Bought, Shuttered by Microsoft

New start-up company LiveLoop, maker of the PowerPoint plug-in that allows users to collaborate with others on a document simultaneously, has been acquired by Microsoft for an undisclosed sum.

A notice on the LiveLoop website now reads: "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."

A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to ZDNet that Microsoft bought the company with the following statement: "Microsoft is excited to welcome the talented team from LiveLoop to help build great collaboration across Office applications, as part of our strategy and vision to reinvent productivity."

 LiveLoop has developed a technology for converting presentations into Web URLs that can be viewed from any computer or phone "without installing any software," or using Web-hosting services for online meetings like GoToMeeting. Everyone participating in the collaborative work will have a synchronized view to the presenter's slide, and the presentation itself can be updated at any time by anyone in the team.

LiveLoop's technology will be a welcome addition to Microsoft's upcoming universal Office 2016 productivity suite, particularly to the next upgraded version of its PowerPoint software. Microsoft also previously purchased email app maker Acompli and cross-platform calendar app maker Sunrise in its drive to make its productivity suite more competitive.

Microsoft last month has released the universal apps for Office for Windows 10 to those running the Windows 10 Technical Preview build 9926 on their PCs, laptops and tablets. The preview versions of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint are, for now, available for download free of charge through the new Windows Store Beta. According to the company, "You can use most functionality in Word preview for free. [But] after preview, some functionality will require a qualifying Office 365 subscription."

Users who have signed up for the Windows 10 Technical Preview can download the apps for Word, Powerpoint, and Excel from the Windows Store Beta. The universal version of OneNote already comes with the Windows 10 technical preview, while the availability of the apps for Outlook and Calendar is expected to be announced at a later date. Also, the next version of Microsoft's desktop productivity suite will be officially called Office 2016, even though it is announced for release in 2015.