The Ptch service will be shut down by Jan. 2
Yahoo has acquired Ptch, the startup behind a mobile app that allowed users to combine photos and video on their phones into movies, and the service will shut down by January.
Incubated by DreamWorks Animation, Ptch was positioned as a social media application that enabled users to make stylized short videos, called ptches, and share them with the Ptch network of users as well as on Facebook and Twitter timelines.
"We acquired the company, which includes the people and the technology they built," a Yahoo spokeswoman said via email Tuesday. She did not disclose the terms of the deal.
"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 said in a blog post.
Yahoo has been acquiring a string of companies, very often for their talented staff, to boost its expertise and offerings in key target markets like mobile. The acquisition of Ptch comes a day after the company announced it had acquired SkyPhrase, a natural language processing startup. "The team of four has built amazing natural language processing technology and we're excited to welcome them to our Yahoo Labs team in New York," Yahoo said.
The Internet giant acquired Qwiki, a New York City company that developed an app for turning photos and videos into short, edited movies, in July. It decided to continue to support the Qwiki app as a standalone service within Yahoo.
Ptch said it will shut down on Jan. 2. Until then, users can download their ptches on the company's website ptch.com or save them to their camera roll from the Ptch app on their phones.
John Ribeiro covers outsourcing and general technology breaking news from India for The IDG News Service. Follow John on Twitter at @Johnribeiro. John's e-mail address is john_ribeiro@idg.com
In the third and final episode of our 3-part CMO50 video series exploring modern marketing and why it’s become a matter of trust, we’re delighted to be joined by Telstra’s former CMO and now digital services and sales executive, Jeremy Nicholas, and Adobe VP Marketing Asia-Pacific and Japan, Duncan Egan.
Flash back to the classic film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Television-obsessed Mike insists on becoming the first person to be ‘sent by Wonkavision’, dematerialising on one end, pixel by pixel, and materialising in another space. His cinematic dreams are realised thanks to rash decisions as he is shrunken down to fit the digital universe, followed by a trip to the taffy puller to return to normal size.
Why is it there is no shortage of leadership development materials, yet outstanding leadership is so rare? Despite having access to so many leadership principles, tools, systems and processes, why is it so hard to develop and improve as a leader?
As a nation united by sport, brands are beginning to learn money alone won’t talk without aligned values and action. If recent events with major leagues and their players have shown us anything, it’s the next generation of athletes are standing by what they believe in – and they won’t let their values be superseded by money.
