Yahoo snags mobile-video startup Ptch
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based tech giant has made yet another acquisition: a video app that was funded by DreamWorks.
This time it's Ptch, a mobile video app that was funded by DreamWorks Animation. The iPhone app lets users create montage videos out of clips and photos. The service will shut down on January 2 so the startup's team can join Yahoo, Ptch announced Tuesday on its Web site. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
"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," the startup said in its announcement.
Ptch launched a little more than a year ago, after being incubated out of DreamWorks for eight months. Ptch CEO Ed Leonard was DreamWorks' chief technology officer but left the animation giant to start Ptch. "We really see this as a platform for living media," Leonard told CNET last July. The startup also had the aim to be a social network for video creators.
This is just the latest in Yahoo's string of acquisitions. The announcement comes just a day after the company said it bought SkyPhrase, a natural language software startup. Yahoo will presumably incorporate that speech recognition technology into its core product lineup, and it looks to be doing the same kind of thing here with Ptch and its team.