Microsoft buys, shuts down a tiny startup

Microsoft has acquired and started the process of shutting down LiveLoop, a tiny San Francisco startup that makes it easy to share Microsoft Office documents, ZDNet reports.

"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," a Microsoft spokesperson said in an email.

LiveLoop's first product let you share a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation on the web with a simple URL, without the person on the other end needing to download any software or use a videoconferencing app like GoToMeeting.

As ZDNet notes, it would make a nice addition to the stuff Microsoft is already doing with teleconferencing, especially with its giant Surface Hub touchscreen conference room computers.

Existing LiveLoop users will have until April 24th to get all of their stuff off of LiveLoop before it shuts down permanently, it said. At the time of writing, the LiveLoop website was down, perhaps due to a sudden rush of interest in the company in the wake of the acquisition.

LiveLoop was funded by New Enterprise Associates and Columbus Nova Technology Partners, but the company never reported how much money it raised. Terms of the acquisition were not announced, although Microsoft did confirm the deal to Foley. (We've reached out to Microsoft to ask for comment.)

LiveLoop joins startups like Acompli and Sunrise in the roster of productivity-boosting startups snapped up my Microsoft. Acompli has become the basis of the lauded Microsoft Outlook for iOS app. We'll have to wait and see what happens to LiveLoop.