Microsoft has bought a smart scheduling app Genee. The start-up, which was founded in 2014, will shut down its service on September 1.
Genee was founded by Ben Cheung and Charles Lee, who will now join Microsoft.
Genee specializes in using machine smarts to handle the time-sucking task of scheduling meetings. Scheduling meetings can often involve a lot of back and forth over emails, something Genee solved with its solution.
A user sends an email to the person they wanted to set up a meeting with and copy in Genee, like a personal assistant.
Genee claims to understand the details of the meeting, including the date and location of the meeting. The app then emails the recipient directly with options that fit the user’s calendar and preferences.
Genee’s expertise could be used to improve capabilities of Microsoft’s Cortana as it competes with the likes of Google Now and Apple’s Siri.