Wunderlist's founder wants to buy the app back from Microsoft

Wunderlist on Windows Phone
Wunderlist on Windows Phone (Image credit: Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • Wunderlist's founder wants to purchase the app back from Microsoft.
  • Microsoft acquired Wunderlist and has progressively rolled its features into Microsoft To Do.
  • Wunderlist will eventually be shut down once Microsoft ports all of its features to Microsoft To Do.

Wunderlist's founder, Christian Reber, wants to purchase Wunderlist back from Microsoft before the app is shut down (via The Verge). Reber tweeted his hope to buy the app back over the weekend and mentioned both Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Microsoft General Manager for Tasks Marcus Ash. Microsoft acquired Wunderlist in 2015 and the app is set to be shut down once its features are ported to Microsoft To Do. Reber wants to keep Wunderlist running and expressed his sadness that the app is being shut down.

Wunderlist was reportedly purchased for between $100 to $200 million in 2015 and Microsoft has gradually ported its features over to Microsoft To Do. The process has taken years as Wunderlist's APIs are powered by Amazon Web Services. Microsoft chose to rewrite code and move everything over to its own cloud, Azure.

Wunderlist is still a highly-rated productivity app, and some users prefer it over Microsoft To Do. Microsoft has improved Microsoft To Do significantly since its launch, but it still falls behind Wunderlist in some categories.

Sean Endicott
News Writer and apps editor

Sean Endicott brings nearly a decade of experience covering Microsoft and Windows news to Windows Central. He joined our team in 2017 as an app reviewer and now heads up our day-to-day news coverage. If you have a news tip or an app to review, hit him up at sean.endicott@futurenet.com.