Cooliris, the startup responsible for one of the world’s most beautiful messaging and media experiences on desktop and mobile devices, has announced that it was taken over by Yahoo. The startup has been launched in 2006, and has been made famous by its three-dimensional “photo wall”, a beautiful way of navigating through pictures and videos on any device with a screen. According to the message posted on the Cooliris website, the Cooliris for Mobile and BeamIt Messenger will continue to work as before, at least for the time being.
Cooliris was convinced by Yahoo’s “clear vision and unwavering commitment to making mobile an intuitive and effortless experience”, making it an ideal partner for the company behind the apps. The company has expressed its excitement to bring indispensable products to a worldwide audience.
Since Marissa Mayer took the lead at Yahoo, the company has talked a lot about focusing more on mobile devices. Although an official press release about the acquisition was not released at this moment (or I was unable to find it), the company has released a statement about the acquisition to TechCrunch. Here it is:
We have acquired Cooliris. In order to build inspiring products, grow engagement, and ultimately revenue, everything starts with having the best people to help us accelerate our transformation in our growth areas. As such, we are focusing on acquisitions that align with our key growth areas: search, communications, digital magazines and video. We are excited to welcome 17 employees from Cooliris to Sunnyvale, where our core communications team is located. Nothing will change with the Cooliris products in the immediate future.
There is no word about Yahoo’s intentions for Cooliris just yet, but it seems logical that it will integrate the technology in some of its mobile releases, probably adding cool special effects to its Flickr mobile app.