Microsoft acquires MileIQ app developer Mobile Data Labs

Microsoft has gone shopping again. This time it acquired Mobile Data Labs–makers of the MileIQ mileage-tracking app.

Rajesh Jha, corporate vice president of Outlook and Office 365 for Microsoft announced the acquisition in a blog post. He noted that the 55 million entrepreneurs and small business employees in the United States need tools that save time and allow them to perform tedious administrative tasks more efficiently. “Mobile Data Lab’s MileIQ app takes advantage of sensors in modern mobile devices to automatically and contextually capture, log and calculate business miles, allowing users to confidently claim tax deductions. In fact, the average MileIQ subscriber is able to deduct $547 per month in business miles, putting money back in their pockets. MileIQ counts over 1 million users and has been the top-grossing finance app in the iTunes store for 20 months straight.”

“Under Satya Nadella’s leadership, Microsoft has been on a path of tremendous innovation; the people in the company feel it, the products show it and the market has responded,” declared Chuck Dietrich, CEO and co-founder of Mobile Data Labs. “Microsoft’s ambition to reinvent personal productivity and business processes couldn’t be more aligned with our goals.”

Combined with other recent acquisitions like Acompli, Sunrise, and Wunderlist, the purchase of Mobile Data Labs demonstrates Microsoft’s aggressive strategy to provide customers with solutions that are as effective as they are innovative–and vice versa.