Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), in its latest mobile deal, announced Wednesday of acquiring a start-up, Qwiki, which created an app for the iPhone that automatically converts user’s pictures, music and videos into slideshow videos.
About the deal
Details of the agreement have not been revealed yet, but according to AllThingsD’s estimate, the purchase price may be between $40 million to $50 million. The rumored deal was reported by the tech blog a few weeks ago.
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) will continue to support the Qwiki app and employees of the company will join the New York City office “to reimagine Yahoo’s storytelling experience,” the company said in a blog post.
About Qwiki
Qwiki was co-founded two years ago by Doug Imbruce and Louis Monier, who are credited with AltaVista search engine. The start-up has got $10 million in venture funding from investors, including Lerer Ventures and Lightbank, along with Facebook co-founder Eduardo Severin.
The iPhone app was launched by Qwiki earlier this year prior to which it created an iPad app that creates video summaries of search terms. The start-up has developed video-creation tools for online publishers, working along with ABC News.
Qwiki made its own video about joining Yahoo.
Earlier acquisitions by Yahoo
Prior to Qwiki, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), under the leadership of CEO Marissa Mayer, had made numerous acquisitions of mobile start-ups in the last year. The acquisitions follow the company’s strategy to boost the revenues as users shift from desktop to mobile devices.
Some of the recent acquisitions made by Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) are Stamped, Jybe, OnTheAir, Snip.it and Summly. Just a few days back, Yahoo acquired Bignoaggins Productions that creates an app for managing fantasy sports teams.
Since Mayer took over as the CEO in last July, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) has acquired 15 companies including Tumblr, for $1.1 billion. Tumblr, which has over 50 billion blog posts, “can bring complementary content to Yahoo!’s media network and search experiences.”
Yahoo acquired Summly in March, which is a mobile startup designing apps for smartphone and tablet users to find, read and share online news and information. Summly, which according the reports cost Yahoo $30 million, was founded by Nick D’Aloisio at the age of 15.
Alike was acquired by Yahoo in February, which is also a mobile start-up designing location-based mobile apps. Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) also acquired Koprol, which is an Indonesian check-in service company.
