Microsoft acquired Groove Music domains from Zikera

Vu Anh Nguyen

A new report from TheDomains has brought some interesting details on the branding of Microsoft’s Groove Music app, involving a supposed acquisition by Microsoft of a company called Zikera.
Based in Montreal, Canada, Zikera were the owners of an app called “Groove: Smart Music Player”, which had over 1.5 million downloads on the Apple App Store and was also available on the Windows Store, according to the app’s description on CrunchBase.
TheDomains found out that Microsoft has taken ownership of 2 domains formerly belonging to Zikera: GrooveSmartMusic.com and StartGrooving.com, with the former redirecting to Microsoft’s own Groove Music page. This is the strongest evidence so far that suggest an acquisition did take place, something suspected by many tech news sites at the time including ZDNet, who approached Microsoft and got told “nothing more to share at this time.”
Thanks Lijin for the tip!

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