Yahoo buys video app Qwiki for a reported $50 million

Steven Loeb · July 3, 2013 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/3068

Qwiki is an iOS app that turns pictures and videos from a user’s camera roll into movies to share

Another day, another start up bought up by Yahoo.

Literally the day after it was revealed that Yahoo had bought fantasy sports app Bignoggins, it has now come out that the company has now purchased its 13th (!) start up since October.

This time the company is rich media service Qwiki, it was revealed in a blog post  on Tuesday.

"On a journey that took us from NYC to San Francisco and back again, the Qwiki team has spent the past few years creating products and technology that make it easy to share and discover stories," Doug Imbruce, a co-founder of Qwiki, wrote.

"It has been extremely rewarding having our products downloaded by millions, and watching the Qwiki community evolve and grow - especially via our most recent launch, Qwiki for iPhone. Seeing the stories that you share through the app inspires us every day."

Unlike many of Yahoo's start up acquisitions, which were acqui-hires and wound up with the company dissolved, The Qwiki app will remain as a standalone entity inside Yahoo.

No financial information was provided by Imbruce in his announcement, but the price tag is said to be around $50 million, according to a report from AllThingsD on Tuesday. 

Obviously that number is unverified at this time. VatorNews has reached out to both Yahoo and Qwiki to confirm it, and we will update if we learn more.

New York City-based Qwiki, which launched publicly in January 2011, as a reinvention of how users would search. 

Typing in virtually any search terms will return a list of related Qwikis that present information not as black and white text, but as a rich media narrative complete with a dynamic and interactive photo collage, digitized voice that reads the text, and links to related Qwikis. 

Most recently, Qwiki released an iPhone app that automatically turns the pictures and videos from a user’s camera roll into brief movies to share.

New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who has been repeatedly touted New York's emerging tech scene, could not help but inject himself into the news that one of the city's start ups making it big.

“Qwiki is a great example of the momentum in New York City’s booming tech sector," Bloomberg said in a statement. “While the company was started out west, they relocated here to be a part of our surging tech community… We congratulate them on their partnership with Yahoo!, and hope they continue to grow and thrive in New York City.”

The company raised a total of $10.5 million, including an $8 million Series A round led by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin in January . The company then added $1 million to that In March 2011 from Groupon co-founders Brad Keywell and Eric Lefkofsky.

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