Amazon's stock is moving higher after the company partnered with a big competitor in the personal assistant space.
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Amazon and Microsoft are rising after a personal assistant partnership (AMZN, MSFT)
Amazon's stock price is rising after it begins to make friends with competitors in the smart speaker and personal assistant space.
Microsoft and Amazon are teaming up to integrate their personal assistant technologies, according to a news release. Users of either Microsoft's Cortana or Amazon's Alexa will be able to ask for their assistant to "open" the other assistant starting later this year.
Amazon is up 0.96% on Wednesday following the news, and Microsoft is trading up 0.53%.
The partnership is a surprising step as many of the major tech companies are battling for a piece of the personal assistant market. Amazon is currently the leader in the space, with Echo devices representing 70% of sales for smart speakers, according to the New York Times.
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The partnership will benefit users of both platforms. Amazon Alexa users will be able to ask for information from their Microsoft products, like calendar events from Outlook. Users of Microsoft's Cortana assistant will have access to Amazon's popular network of third-party skills.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos told the New York Times that he would "welcome" integrating Google's and Apple's smart assistants to the Alexa platform as well.
It's worth noting that Amazon has already placed bets in consolidating the personal assistant space. Amazon has invested in Essential, the company that recently put out its "Phone" and has aspirations to release a smart speaker that will bring together all of the personal assistants.
Amazon is up 27.59% this year.
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