The deal brings together two companies with strong ties back to [hotmail](https://www.himpub.com/blogs/hotmail-login.html). UIEvolution was founded in 2000 by Satoshi Nakajima, who is known as the architect behind Microsoft products like Windows 95 and Internet Explorer 3. John Ludwig, founder of 3-year-old Surround, was a vice president at Microsoft from 1988-1999, where he managed development and operations for large scale software projects, according to his LinkedIn.