PayPal-owned StackMob is shutting down on May 11th

A backend-as-a-service provider, Stackmob was a solution for developing and deploying mobile apps

Back when PayPal bought backend-as-a-service provider Stackmob in December of last year, both sides were pretty cagey about what the company's ultimate fate would be. Would it be integrated into PayPal? Would it survive as a stand-alone service? Or would it be shut down completely? Neither company would say anything concerete.

In its original announcement, StackMob only said that it would be "communicating with you very soon regarding the future of the StackMob platform," while a  PayPal spokesperson told VatorNews at the time, "The StackMob employees will be integrated into PayPal by helping us imagine, develop and deliver our next generation of mobile products."

Well, two months later, now we finally know the answer. And it will be disappointing news for many of StackMob's users.

Stackmob will be shutting down on May 11th, Ty Amell, co-founder and CEO of StackMob, announced in a blog post on Wednesday, saying that the goal going forward would be "focusing our team and resources on making PayPal the best global payments platform in the world."

After the shutdown day, Stackmob customers will no longer have access to their accounts, or be able to export data, so the company is launching a data exporter in order to help customer get all their data out of StackMob in CSV format.

Amell called the closing of Stackmob "bittersweet" but also noted that he, and the team, "are energized and thrilled with the opportunity ahead for us at PayPal, which we truly feel will make a direct impact on people all over the world."

"By closing the doors to StackMob, we will be able to focus 100% of our energy on extending innovation in mobile technologies that will let users access the rich capabilities of the PayPal global network," he said. "We truly believe our work at PayPal will make it easier for developers to create seamless payment solutions that span online, mobile, and in-store experiences.

This, he noted, will be "a daunting, but exciting challenge."

The San Francisco-based StackMob offered a cloud computing solution for developing and deploying mobile apps, with a complete suite of backend services already in place so that developers could streamline the process and get their apps created and deployed.

Founded in 2010, the company raised $7.5 million in a Series A round that was led by Trinity Ventures, with participation from previous investors Harrison Metal and Baseline Ventures in May 2011.

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