Microsoft today announced will acquire Danger Inc., the makers of the popular Sidekick phones, for an undisclosed sum. The Palo Alto-based company provides services keep people in touch, stay organized and informed while on the go through real-time mobile messaging, social networking services and other applications.

Applications on Danger-powered handsets include HTML Web browsing, instant messaging, games, multimedia, social networking, Web email and personal information management applications. Combining these services with Microsoft technologies, including MSN, Xbox, Zune, Windows Live and Windows Mobile, will provide the software giant with tools to accelerate work against Google's Android mobile platform.

Danger was co-founded by Andy Rubin, who is now running Google's mobile phone project, Android. Google has assembled a community of carriers, cellphone makers, software developers and chipmakers to develop a mobile software platform.