Yahoo continues its acquisitions spree. The web giant has bought the one-year-old movie-making mobile app called Ptch. The startup will put an end to its services individually January 2, 2014, so the team can join Yahoo.
Yahoo, nowadays, is always on the lookout for some fresh talent that can be used for the company's benefits. The web giant has been on a shopping spree since Marissa Mayer stepped in as the company's CEO last July. Internally also a lot of brushing up has been happening. A redesigned Yahoo logo, a revamped My Yahoo homepage, refreshed Yahoo Mail interface, several changes to its Flickr photo-sharing service and several modifications to its core services has led Yahoo to reach a steadier level in the competitive market.
The web giant added the movie-making mobile video app, Ptch, to its list of latest acquisitions. This move comes just a day after the Sunnyvale-based internet company announced its SkyPhrase acquisition. Yahoo will work with the SkyPhrase team to gain expertise over natural language processing technology that can be used in its core product lineup. The latest acquisition of Ptch will help the web giant to use the startup's expertise in combining photos and videos on phones to make short movies.
"Today, we're excited to announce that Ptch will be joining Yahoo! As part of the Yahoo team, we'll be able to focus our efforts and leverage our technology to make Yahoo's photo and video platforms the best in the world," Ptch cofounder Hans Ku, wrote on the company's blog post, Tuesday.
Ptch will continue to offer its services to the current users and lets new users download the app until January 2, 2014, when the company will shut down all its offerings. The mobile video app was introduced a little over a year ago by DreamWorks' chief technology officer, Ed Leonard.
Yahoo also made a purchase back in July for a startup that turned photos and videos into short, edited movies called Qwiki. The app is still available as the web giant decided not to shut down its services at the time. Now, with an identical acquisition, Yahoo may be working towards a bigger picture. We'll soon find out.
The financial details of the deal remained undisclosed.
