Microsoft puts the founder of Acompli in charge of its Outlook engineering efforts

Outlook remains one of Microsoft's biggest software products and the company is making some moves to make sure it stays that way. It has appointed Javier Soltero, the founder of the mobile email company Acompli that Microsoft acquired earlier this year, to be its new corporate VP in charge of all of Microsoft's Outlook engineering efforts.

Acompli created well-regarded mobile email clients for both iOS and Android before Microsoft bought it for a rumored $200 million. Those clients were basically rebranded and released as Microsoft's Outlook Mobile apps for those operating systems. Re/code reports that Soltero wants to make all of Microsoft's Outlook apps, including ones made for Windows and Mac, popular even with fans of Google's Gmail:

"That's the opportunity we are chasing and it's a rich opportunity," Soltero said in a brief interview with Re/code Monday evening at a launch event for Office 2016. Soltero did say that running such a big operation is an adjustment. "The size of the team is a bit daunting for a guy who's spent the last 10-plus years in companies with less than 75 people," he said."

It will be interesting to see what new features and software Microsoft will release under the new Outlook team headed by Soltero. We have already seen the company release Send for Android and iOS. which is an app that turns email into more of an instant messaging experience.

Source: Re/code

John Callaham