Nokia acquires photo-video sharing start-up Twango
Nokia is buying online photo- and video-sharing start-up Twango, a private company in Redmond, Wash., reportedly for less than $96.8 million.
The Seattle Times is one of several publications reporting the story, with full details.
Nokia will integrate Twango to support hundreds of thousands of users on PCs and cellphones. Twango is a useful, straight-forward product for media sharing. The deal is good news for dozens of other photo-video companies, because it shows acquisitions in this crowded industry still do happen.
The Twango service is free for now, but Nokia may charge for certain features to be developed. Nokia has already partnered with companies like Flickr (photo sharing) and Six Apart’s Vox (blogging software). Nokia has also acquired digital music distributor, Loudeye for $60 million, and German navigation software company Gate5 for an undisclosed amount.
The deal comes as competitor Samsung is readying a “YouTube phone.”
Next Story: Biotech venture funding takes a hit, but devices are hot
Previous Story: Sequoia Capital hires three partners, one each in Israel, India and U.S.
About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
