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In a move that has been pending for quite some time now, Microsoft has finally closed a deal to purchase Xamarin, a popular developer of .NET tooling for use with Android, OSX and iOS platforms. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed, though Xamarin did release information regarding $54 million in funding that was obtained in 2014. Investors who led that round of funding included Insight Venture Partners, Charles River Ventures, Floodgate and more.

Scott Guthrie, executive vice president with the Cloud and Enterprise Group at Microsoft, spoke enthusiastically about the recent purchase. He was quoted in a recent blog post as saying: "With today’s acquisition announcement we will be taking this work much further to make our world class developer tools and services even better with deeper integration and enable seamless mobile app dev experiences. The combination of Xamarin, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Team Services, and Azure delivers a complete mobile app dev solution that provides everything a developer needs to develop, test, deliver and instrument mobile apps for every device. We are really excited to see what you build with it."

Xamarin at a Glance

Founded in 2011 and headquartered out of San Francisco, California, the company quickly its business to more than 350 customers. These customers, which are referred to as Xamarins, now number more than 15,000 strong. Amongst some of the most prolific names include Microsoft, Dow Jones, GitHub, Kellogg's, Bosch, JetBlue and more.

Product Portfolio

Although still considered as a rather young company, Xamarin already boasts an impressive product line. The Xamarin 2.0 platform facilitates development in Windows, iOS and Android environments, while the Xamarin Test Cloud is used for comprehensive app testing prior to a public release. Xamarin for Visual Studio is reportedly the only IDE that accommodates native Windows, iOS and Android development via MS Visual Studio. Other products include Xamarin Studio, which is a standalone service that is meant to support mobile app development, Xamarin.Mac, .Net Mobility Scanner, Xamarin.Forms and RoboVM.

Xamarin University

The experts with Xamarin also provide comprehensive training and education regarding app development for Windows, iOS and Android platforms. In fact, Xamarin University currently hosts nearly 60 classes that are aimed at future app developers. An annual subscription to the online school costs $1,995.

Nat Friedman, co-founder and current CEO of Xamarin, explained the purpose by Xamarin University by saying: "Xamarin University is designed to ensure developers have the ability to stay on top of emerging mobile technologies, and make sure their skills remain current. We know of no other company providing this level of expert online training at this type of price point. We expect in the future most mobile development training will be delivered in this way."

How to Find Out More Information

To find out more information about Xamarin, including details about their entire line of products, please visit their official website at www.xamarin.com. Apart from technical information, visitors to the site can also compare products, receive technical support and even download a free trial of Xamarin Starter Edition.