SwiftKey joins Microsoft, advised by Cooley

Cooley London advised the shareholders of SwiftKey, including the founders Jon Reynolds and Ben Medlock and investors such as Accel Partners, Index Ventures and Octopus Investments on its acquisition by Microsoft.

David Bresnick, London based partner in Cooley’s corporate team commented on the acquisition: “Given the number of parties involved and the short timeframe we were working with, this was a complex transaction but I am delighted that the founders, investors and shareholders generally have achieved their goal, which is a great case study for Tech UK”.

The British apps firm SwiftKey is recognised worldwide for its powered by artificial intelligence predictive keyboard which is installed on 300m iOS and Android devices across the globe.

SwiftKey is the latest acquisition of Microsoft and is a valuable addition to its collection of apps companies. Some of the apps that the giant has bought since 2014 include the developers of email Acompli, the business communications app Talko and the productivity app Wunderlist. Microsoft has reportedly paid $250m (£173.2m). Executive vice-president of technology and research Harry Shum promises: “We’ll continue to develop SwiftKey’s market-leading keyboard apps for Android and iOS as well as explore scenarios for the integration of the core technology across the breadth of our product and services portfolio.”

The Cooley team advising on the transaction includes David Bresnick, Natasha Kaye, Paula Holland, Chris Coulter, Danny Bloom, Amy Collins, Chris Stack and David Young.