Microsoft buys mobile BI company Datazen

Microsoft has beefed up its play for the business intelligence and data visualisation market by acquiring mobile business intelligence vendor Datazen Software.

In a blog post announcing the move, Microsoft cloud executive Kamal Hathi said the acquisition of the Toronto-based company "accelerates our Power BI strategy to help organisations create a data culture with easy-to-use, accessible tools to extract maximum value from data – from anywhere, on any device".

Although Datazen's software will continue to work for existing users following the acquisition, it will gradually be folded into Power BI, Microsoft’s cloud-based business analytics service. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise Edition customers (version 2008 and up) can now download Datazen’s server software at no cost. Native apps for Windows, Windows Phone, iOS, Android and the web are available free of charge from their respective app stores.

"SQL Server customers love Datazen, because it is optimised for SQL Server Analysis Services and the overall Microsoft platform, enabling rich, interactive data visualisation and KPIs on all major mobile platform," Hathi said.

Power BI was the first product Microsoft released under Satya Nadella as CEO. The move to strengthen it with Datazen's mobile products is in line with Nadella's stated emphasis on a cloud-based world.

Datazen CEO Miljan Braticevic said the acquisition was a culmination of a three year drive "to create a dream BI product".

"Our ambitions went beyond a laundry list of product features; we wanted everyone to enjoy and look forward to using Datazen as a part of their daily routine."

The acquisition follows Microsoft's introduction in December of a Power BI app for iOS. At the time it promised other platforms would follow "in the coming months".