US Computing Multinational Acquires EdTech Start-up

Microsoft announced its latest acquisition of Flipgrid, a social learning platform, in field of education through videos. Microsoft also announced the app to be free for schools, teachers and students. Office 365 Education will also be free of cost for verified education addressees. Previously, Flipgrid charged $65 per educator annually, $800 for a district and $1000 for a school. Neither Microsoft nor Flipgrid has revealed the dealing amount.

Eran Megiddo, VP of Microsoft said, “We’re thrilled to see the impact Flipgrid has had in social learning thus far and look forward to helping them continue to thrive as part of the Microsoft family. We’re diligently committed to making sure their platform and products continue to work across the Microsoft, Google and partner ecosystems to benefit students and teachers everywhere.”

Flipgrid is an educational app that contains video clips of student’s lesson plans and also allows students to create and share educational videos with iOS and Android devices. Students can also share their views about a certain topic by commenting on videos. Around 20 million educators use the app for learning and sharing purposes across the world.

Jim Leslie, CEO of Flipgrid said, “Flipgrid has always been about the educator community. They are the source of our innovation and impact”. Leslie added, “Now, as a part of Microsoft, we have the opportunity to scale so we can support every educator across the globe as they empower student voices.”

Microsoft acquired Flipgrid with an aim to strengthen its position in Education sector as it has faced great competition from Apple and Google in Education centers.