Report: Microsoft acquires startup behind Wunderlist to-do app

The deal was worth between $100 and $200 million, and is the latest in a string of acquisitions from the Redmond company aimed at bolstering its cross-platform holdings in the mobile productivity space. 6Wunderkinder's staff will continue to work out of the firm's Berlin office, but will report to Microsoft's headquarters in Washington. The report squares with an earlier article from VentureBeat, which said the deal would be valued below $250 million.

The acquisition comes almost two weeks after Wunderlist announced that it was integrating more deeply with Sunrise, a cross-platform calendar application that Microsoft acquired in February. Much like Sunrise, Wunderlist works across a variety of platforms including iOS, Android, OS X, Windows and the web, and has garnered overwhelmingly positive reviews across all of them.

Wunderlist's service is funded on a subscription model. Users can get a basic set of features for free, or pay $4.99 a month for a "Pro" subscription. The company also offers a business package for enterprises that want to get entire teams using the system.

Last year, Microsoft acquired Acompli and turned its email app for iOS and Android into a version of Outlook for those platforms. It's unclear whether Wunderlist's apps will remain independent (as Sunrise's have) or if they will get pulled from the store and rebranded.

Either way, the acquisition would fit into Microsoft's ongoing strategy of creating and acquiring apps that bring functions of its business to platforms beyond Windows and Windows Phone at a time when other players are dominating the smartphone and tablet markets.

A Microsoft spokeswoman said that the company was "not commenting on rumors or speculation." A spokeswoman for 6Wunderkinder did not immediately respond to a request for comment.