Microsoft to stop collecting mapping data, sells assets to Uber

A new deal between Microsoft and Uber will move around 100 of Microsoft’s employees who work on Bing over to working for Uber. Uber is mainly hiring Bing employees who work on Bing’s image and data collection. Microsoft confirmed to Re/Code that the deal had been done:

“Over the past year, we have taken many actions to focus the company’s efforts around our core business strategy,” Microsoft said in a statement to Re/code. “In keeping with these efforts, we will no longer collect mapping imagery ourselves, and instead will continue to partner with premium content and imagery providers for underlying data while concentrating our resources on the core user experience. With this decision, we will transfer many of our imagery acquisition operations to Uber.”

For those who don’t know, Uber is a service that allows people to request transportation from other Uber drivers. It’s an app you can install on your phone or smartwatch, so you can quickly and cheaply get transportation to places you need to go. It’s not available everywhere yet, but it’s growing fast.