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Yahoo could be buying video maker Qwiki for $50-million
It’s been almost two weeks since Yahoo! bought something but, according to an AllThingsD report, it may be about to break the fast. Citing sources close the matter, the report states that the Silicon Valley tech company is eyeing video app maker Qwiki for a rumoured US$50-million.
Qwiki is a New York-based startup that specialises in automated video production. Most recently, the company launched an iPhone app to join its initial iPad offering, which allows users to automatically turn the pictures and videos from a user’s camera roll into brief movies to share.
This play makes sense for Yahoo! and is in line with CEO Marissa Mayer’s vision for revamping not just the company’s video offering but also its mobile play, an area where she feels it is lacking.
“With the web becoming so vast, there’s so much content and there’s so much social context, and now with mobile, there’s so much location context and activity context,” Mayer said earlier this year. “How do you pull all that together?” In Yahoo’s eyes through “a feed of information that is ordered, the web is ordered for you and is also on your mobile phone.”
The company has been working its mobile-only efforts in the last couple of months with its revamped weather app and a beautifully designed new Flickr app. The company seems to be on a mission to produce a series of daily apps that people can use throughout their day.
Last year Qwiki joined forces with Yahoo! news partner ABC News to launch video creation tools for major publishers. Currently the company integrates its technology in Microsoft’s Bing Search engine — that should be interesting for Yahoo!.
In January 2011, Qwiki raised US$8-million in Series A financing, a round that was led primarily by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, the company raised an additional US$1-million months after launch and is said to have raised nearly US$10.5-million in funds.
Currently neither Yahoo! or Qwiki have commented on the possible acquisition but with the way things are going at Yahoo these days chances we will get an announcement soon.
