Danger, Inc.
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Mobile computing, software, hardware, services |
| Founded | December 9, 1999 |
| Founder | Andy Rubin, Joe Britt, Matt Hershenson |
| Fate | Acquired by Microsoft |
| Successor | Microsoft Kin (project) |
| Headquarters | United States |
| Products | T-Mobile Sidekick (Danger Hiptop) |
| Parent | Microsoft (from 2008) |
Danger, Inc. was an American enterprise focused on the development of hardware, software, and services tailored for mobile computing platforms. Established on December 9, 1999, its most notable offering was the T-Mobile Sidekick (also known as Danger Hiptop), an early adopter of cloud-based smartphone technology that introduced the app marketplace model later embraced by platforms such as Android and iOS. On February 11, 2008, Microsoft acquired Danger for an estimated $500 million.
History
The company was created by Andy Rubin, Joe Britt, and Matt Hershenson—former professionals from Apple, WebTV, and Philips—who earned acclaim for their groundbreaking mobile innovations. Rubin departed in 2003 to launch Android Inc., which was subsequently purchased by Google.
Following Microsoft's acquisition, Danger’s workforce was integrated into the Entertainment and Devices Division to work on "Project Pink," which resulted in the release of Microsoft Kin. These devices failed commercially and were discontinued shortly after their market debut. Subsequently, the team merged into the Windows Phone group, and marketing efforts were halted.
By the end of 2009, the majority of former Danger staff had exited Microsoft. Rubin remained at the helm of Android until 2013 and recruited Matías Duarte, who had served as Danger’s design director, to join Google.
This acquisition is commonly cited as a textbook example of poor merger execution due to inadequate assimilation of both technology and personnel. Similarly, Microsoft's later acquisition of Nokia’s mobile division in 2013 encountered comparable difficulties.
October 2009 data loss
On October 12, 2009, a failure at Danger’s data centers—caused either by server malfunction or human error during maintenance—resulted in the complete loss of all Sidekick user information. Because Sidekick devices stored user content remotely on Danger’s servers rather than locally on the device, users lost access to contacts, calendars, photos, and other media that had not been backed up elsewhere. Although a $9.99 application allowed synchronization of contacts, calendars, and tasks with a Windows PC for local backup purposes, notes could not be preserved through this method. Two days prior to the incident, T-Mobile informed customers that Microsoft believed data recovery was unlikely.
At that time, Microsoft managed the data centers hosting this information. Reports revealed that Microsoft had contracted Hitachi to upgrade its storage area network (SAN), during which an error led to data destruction. Due to a lack of active backups, restoration had to be performed from an offsite tape backup approximately one month old containing 800GB of data. The entire recovery process extended beyond two months.
This event underscored vulnerabilities associated with cloud computing reliability and sparked widespread concerns regarding data management protocols within such operational frameworks.