Microsoft offered technologies that it developed to two more European companies, as part of its push to help accelerate innovation among startup companies, the software giant said on Monday. The agreements are part of Microsoft’s IP Ventures program, an initiative started last year to transfer technologies developed in Microsoft research labs to startup companies. Microsoft gave U.K. company Skinkers the IP rights to peer-to-peer (P-to-P) technology that it has developed in exchange for a 10 percent equity stake in the company, said Rob Noble, Skinkers’ chief operating officer. Skinkers offers a product that allows companies including the Wall Street Journal and Virgin Atlantic Airways to push alerts out to customers. The Wall Street Journal uses it to allow customers to sign up to be alerted when specified types of breaking news happen. Clicking on the alert, which pops up on a user’s computer screen, opens up the full story. Skinkers hopes to integrate the Microsoft P-to-P technology into its product so that alerts can be sent from customer to customer rather than only directly from a central source. For example, if one Wall Street Journal customer receives an alert and the alert is delayed reaching another nearby customer due to Internet congestion, the first recipient will automatically send the alert to the second customer. The technology will work without either customer being aware of it, Noble said. Skinkers researchers will work with Microsoft developers at the company’s Cambridge, England, research facility to further develop the technology. Skinkers will ultimately market the product, and Microsoft may integrate the technology into some of its offerings too. Microsoft’s taking a stake in Skinkers shows that Microsoft IP Ventures believes in the technology’s value and isn’t just purging unusable products. “Their whole raison d’etre is to accelerate the growth of young and innovative companies,” Noble said. “Microsoft is taking an interest in the broader world of software development.” As part of the deal, Andrew Herbert, the managing director of the Microsoft Research Cambridge lab, will sit on Skinkers’ board as an observer. The second European collaboration that Microsoft announced is with Vimio PLC, an Irish company that sells a content distribution product to mobile operators. Vimio is licensing bandwidth optimization software from Microsoft. The software, which will reside on mobile phones, is designed to improve the user experience by optimizing the sometimes low bandwidth available over wireless networks. Microsoft isn’t taking a stake in Vimio, said Padraic Marren, vice president of business development for Vimio. Vimio is the second Irish company to collaborate with Microsoft through the IP Ventures program. In January, SoftEdge Systems said it would use image manipulation technology created by Microsoft, and in return, Microsoft will receive a percentage of product sales. Both Irish companies were introduced to Microsoft through Enterprise Ireland, the government agency designed to help Irish companies growth into international concerns.-Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service This article is posted on our Microsoft Informer page. For more news on the Redmond, Wash.-based powerhouse, keep checking in.Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content feature Expedia poised to take flight with generative AI CTO Rathi Murthy sees the online travel service’s vast troves of data and AI expertise fueling a two-pronged transformation strategy aimed at growing the company by bringing more of the travel industry online. By Paula Rooney Jun 02, 2023 7 mins Travel and Hospitality Industry Digital Transformation Artificial Intelligence case study Deoleo doubles down on sustainability through digital transformation The Spanish multinational olive oil processing company is immersed in a digital transformation journey to achieve operational efficiency and contribute to the company's sustainability strategy. By Nuria Cordon Jun 02, 2023 6 mins CIO Supply Chain Digital Transformation brandpost Resilient data backup and recovery is critical to enterprise success As global data volumes rise, business must prioritize their resiliency strategies. By Neal Weinberg Jun 01, 2023 4 mins Security brandpost Democratizing HPC with multicloud to accelerate engineering innovations Cloud for HPC is facilitating broader access to high performance computing and accelerating innovations and opportunities for all types of organizations. By Tanya O'Hara Jun 01, 2023 6 mins Multi Cloud Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe