Yahoo acquires mobile movie and slideshow app developer Qwiki

PanARMENIAN.Net - Yahoo has agreed to acquire mobile movie and slideshow application developer Qwiki, v3.co.uk reports.

The company said that it would be joining the web giant and moving from its New York offices to Silicon Valley.

“On a journey that took us from NYC to San Francisco and back again, the Qwiki team has spent the past few years creating products and technology that make it easy to share and discover stories,” Qwiki said in announcing the deal.

“It has been extremely rewarding having our products downloaded by millions, and watching the Qwiki community evolve and grow - especially via our most recent launch, Qwiki for iPhone. Seeing the stories that you share through the app inspires us every day.”

The deal is the latest move by a major name in the social networking space to acquire a firm specialising in short-length movie capture and sharing. Twitter kicked off the buying spree when it acquired Vine, andFacebook soon followed suit with its own video sharing service.

For Yahoo, the move marks yet another step in the company's efforts to turn itself around under new chief executive Marissa Mayer. The former Google exec has sought to modernize Yahoo's properties with the purchase of high-profile brands such as Tumblr.

The move also comes on the heels of a major reorganization effort in yahoo's own brand lineup. Earlier this week the company axed a dozen unpopular or forgotten properties, including what was left of the AltaVista search engine, v3.co.uk says.