Microsoft and Cyanogen reportedly fail to strike investment deal

It looks like Wall Street Journal’s rumored alternative plan for Microsoft’s mobile ambitions may be on hold for now. For the past few months, the tech community has been abuzz when a Wall Street Journal report speculated news that Microsoft would be investing in the Android based smartphone interface developer, Cyanogen.

As Microsoft continues to try and reposition themselves as a software first company, consumers are seeing their software (and to some extent their hardware) become cross platform more often than it used to.

With recent releases like Office for Android, theories grew and conflated about how Microsoft would use an Android based platform designed by Cyanogen as a life raft to keep their very finite presence in the mobile market afloat should Windows Phone’s current life support find an untimely end.

According to news coming from a source at Bloomberg Business, that life raft just returned to shore without Microsoft in it.

As Cyanogen looks to expand their smartphone software onto more phones, the company has found themselves close to an agreement with several investors in their latest round of financial investing. While others have come to the aid of Cyanogen to the tune of $110 million, it looks like Microsoft has chosen not to be among the group this time around after negotiations reportedly have fallen through.

While the reported $70 million funding deal between Cyanogen and Microsoft appears to be over, sources claim that Microsoft may be interested in a commercial deal that would land its software onto the Android based platform similar to the recently struck Samsung deal.

According to Bloomberg Business, “While Microsoft and Cyanogen failed to strike an investment deal, talks between the two illustrate how Microsoft is trying to get its applications and services on rival operating systems, a key goal embraced by Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella. Microsoft has in the past complained that Google Inc., which manages Android, has blocked its programs from the operating system.”

We’ll have more on this as it develops.