Yahoo to acquire image-recognition startup LookFlow
25 Oct 2013
Internet company Yahoo is acquiring image-recognition startup LookFlow to strengthen its photos sharing site Flickr Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The deal comes two months after Yahoo announced that it was acquiring image recognition startup IQ Engine to merge it with Flickr, which it had bought in 2005 (See: Yahoo announces redesigned Flickr with 1 Tb storage for users).
The purchase is the latest in CEO Marissa Mayer's aggressive bout of around 20 acquisitions, including the whopping $1.1-billion paid this year to acquire Tumblr in a bid to revive itself (See: Yahoo acquires Tumblr for $1.1-bn).
Founded in 2009 by Bobby Jaros and Simon Osindero, LookFlow describes itself as ''an entirely new way to explore images you love - combining delightful user experiences with the latest advances in machine learning.''
It announced that it has been acquired by Yahoo and will be joining the Flickr team and told its fans ''Fret not, LookFlow fans. Keep an eye out for our product in future versions of Flickr - with many more wonderful photos and all that Flickr awesomeness!''
With only five engineers, LookFlow' provides technology that uses machine learning to help people find and explore images.
LookFlow's technology will be incorporated into Flickr, and will help Yahoo build a new ''deep learning group.''
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