Microsoft talking with Cyanogen (UPDATE: Cyanogen OS to integrate MS services)

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gnap
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http://www.windowscentral.com/cyanogen-teams-microsoft-offer-bundled-apps-and-services
UPDATE
Cyanogen Announces Strategic Partnership With Microsoft
Cyanogen Open OS Platform to Offer Microsoft Services Later This Year

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwired - April 16, 2015) - Cyanogen Inc. and Microsoft Corp. announced a partnership to integrate popular Microsoft services across the Cyanogen Operating System. With offices in Palo Alto and Seattle, Cyanogen is a leading mobile operating system company that is evolving the Android platform to create a more open, level playing field for third-party developed apps and services.

Under the partnership, Cyanogen will integrate and distribute Microsoft's consumer apps and services across core categories, including productivity, messaging, utilities, and cloud-based services. As part of this collaboration, Microsoft will create native integrations on Cyanogen OS, enabling a powerful new class of experiences.

"People around the world use Cyanogen's operating system and popular Microsoft services to engage with what matters most to them on their mobile devices," said Kirt McMaster, CEO of Cyanogen Inc. "This exciting partnership with Microsoft will enable us to bring new kinds of integrated services to mobile users in markets around the world."

"We aspire to have our tools within arm's reach of everyone, to empower them in all aspects of their lives. This partnership represents another important step towards that ambition," said Peggy Johnson, Executive Vice President of Microsoft Corp. "We'll continue to deliver world-class experiences across productivity and communications on Windows, and we're delighted that Cyanogen users will soon be able to take advantage of those same powerful services."

The distribution arrangement includes a number of Microsoft services: Bing services, Skype, OneDrive, OneNote, Outlook, and Microsoft Office.
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http://www.wpcentral.com/comment/1249776

Cyanogen is a startup behind the popular Android mod, which is preloaded on the affordable One Plus One smartphone. What makes this interesting is how numerous big brands are watching the company as a potential purchase or partner. According to The Information, Microsoft is one of these companies and Satya Nadella has previously sat down with the folk behind CyanogenMod. Since the version of Android is picking up steam, it's clear to see how the company could be viewed as a potential acquisition or partner.

Fans of CyanogenMod in the Android community boast about how they prefer the mod experience over what Google provides with main OEM manufacturers. If Cyanogen continues to grow within the Android ecosystem, it could provide multiple opportunities for Microsoft, one being to more effectively provide services and apps without having to deal with Google directly. We already know how sensitive and strained the relationship between the two giants is, just look at the YouTube mess on Windows Phone, which has still not been addressed in almost four years.

What Microsoft would do with Cyanogen is unknown at this point in time, but there are certainly reasons why Nadella (and Microsoft as a whole) would be interested. There's also the whole Nokia X thing.
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thoughts?
 
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Why-Fi

Why-Fi

gnap
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google just tried to acquire them
http://www.droid-life.com/2014/10/0...-attempt-by-google-seeks-1-billion-valuation/

According to a report from The Information, Google’s own Sundar Pichai, the overseer of all things Android and Chrome, met with Cyanogen Inc. executives recently, and was turned down after expressing interest in a complete acquisition. Ultimately, in theory, a buyout by Google would protect the company’s control of the Android ecosystem, as Cyanogen’s home-brewed version of Android is potentially the first real threat to ship on phones that Google has encountered.

With this news, Cyanogen is now discussing a Series C round of funding with a few major tech firms and late-stage investors, seeking a valuation close to $1 billion.

As many of you may know, Cyanogen is built from Android source code, with layers upon layers of custom code placed on top. These changes allow for users to highly customize the look and feel of the OS. For example, users running Cyanogen can place custom skins on the OS and also increase a device’s security thanks to additional settings. There are countless developers that contribute their code to make Cyanogen a better alternative to vanilla Android, which is provided straight from Google as open source.

Cyanogen has told potential investors that it has a deal in place to bring its custom version of the Android OS to India through a manufacturer called Micromax. Alongside Samsung, Micromax currently holds almost as much share of the smartphone market in India, making this deal a very large step to get Cyanogen into the hands of millions of more people.

Lastly, the report claims that Cyanogen should be wary of modifying Android too much. During the process, the company must continue to follow Google’s compatibility requirements which ensure third-party applications will work on their devices. If those requirements are not met, devices will not be licensed to run Google’s services, such as Google Play and other Google applications.

With Google approaching Cyanogen for a deal, and being turned down, we could be in for a big change to the company’s approach to Android. Will Cyanogen continue on its path to only customize and distribute their version of Android, or will they look to make additional partnerships with various companies to completely rid Google from the picture – much like Amazon did with their forking of Android or Samsung has with Tizen.
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