Yahoo acquires mobile video app startup Ptch

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