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Apple acquires Buddybuild for app developer tools

Buddybuild's team will be folded into the Xcode engineering group.
Written by Jake Smith, Contributor
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Jason Cipriani/ZDNet

Apple has acquired Vancouver-based app development toolkit Buddybuild to make more tools available for its App Store developers.

"We're excited to share that the buddybuild team has joined the Xcode engineering group at Apple to build amazing developer tools for the entire iOS community," Buddybuild wrote on its blog.

Buddybuild touts itself as a "continuous integration, continuous deployment, and user feedback platform" for app development. Essentially, the startup allows developers to utilize a smoother workflow for beta testing apps.

TechCrunch first reported the deal with Apple's confirmation, however the company didn't provide a purchase price.

Following the acquisiton, Buddybuild said it will no longer take new customers. Existing plans and Android app development (no surprise) will be discontinued on March 1, 2018.

The Buddybuild team will stay based in Vancouver, an area the startup called a "hotbed of developer and engineering talent." The startup was founded in 2015, and has raised close to $9 million in funding.

Apple is known for its typically smaller acquisitions that fold specialized teams into existing products at the company. In 2014, Apple acquired the company behind TestFlight, a service that provides app beta deployment and analytics. It's feature set has been incorporated into Apple services used by developers today.

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