Microsoft announced Friday that it has bought Revolution Analytics in order to improve the capabilities of its analytics software.
The acquisition is aimed toward using the R open-source programming language, which Revolution Analytics distributes commercially, for cloud services and premise applications for customers to use for big data-style analysis, according to PCWorld.
R is designed specifically for statistical computing and predictive analysis, and it is one of the most widely used programming languages out there.
"As their volumes of data continually grow, organizations of all kinds around the world - financial, manufacturing, health care, retail, research - need powerful analytical models to make data-driven decisions," Joseph Sirosh, corporate vice president for machine learning at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post. "This acquisition is part of our effort to address these customer needs."
Revolution Analytics also provides a variety of free tools, but it charges for consulting, technical support, training and other services, TechCrunch reported.
Microsoft has yet to reveal how it plans to integrate Revolution's services with its own collection of big data and business analytics services.
"This acquisition will help customers use advanced analytics within Microsoft data platforms on-premises, in hybrid cloud environments and on Microsoft Azure," Sirosh said, adding that Revolution Analytics technology and services will allow Microsoft to help companies, R developers and data scientists create apps and analytics solutions in a cheaper and more efficient way.
Microsoft has pledged to contribute to development R even further, with Revolution Analytics Chief Community Officer David Smith writing in a blog post that the Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant will still support different versions of the Revolution R packages, such as those for Macintosh and Linux, PCWorld reported.
Details on the deal's financial terms and approximate closing date have yet to be revealed.
