Today, Microsoft announced that it"s acquiring Flipgrid, a social learning platform that"s used by more than 20 million students, educators, and families across 180 countries. Moreover, Microsoft will be making the service completely free for schools, just like it"s done for Office 365 Education.
According to Flipgrid"s website, it"s mission is to "Empower learners of all ages to define their voices, share their voices, and respect the diverse voices of others." Indeed, this sounds a lot like Microsoft"s "Empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more", so these companies are probably meant for each other, sharing similar values.
"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," said Eran Megiddo, corporate vice president for Microsoft. "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 will continue to function under its own brand, culture, and team, similar to what we"ve seen from previous acquisitions like LinkedIn. And Flipgrid promises that its services will continue to work great on all platforms, including Chromebooks, iPads, iPhones, PCs, and Android, and that it will continue to make improvements across the board.
Microsoft will be offering a prorated refund to anyone that purchased a subscription from Flipgrid, being that it"s now free. To get your refund, head over to this site.