Yahoo Acquires Qwiki For Around $50 Million

In another display of their intent to buy the entire Internet, Yahoo has just acquired Qwiki, an iOS app that helps users create movies out of the photos and videos in their camera roll.

When Qwiki first launched, it focused on generating short, informational videos on popular search terms. Search for Lady Gaga, for example, and it’d automatically compile a short description of the life of Ms. Stefani Germanotta, presumably narrated over a slideshow of meat-based clothing. That initial service saw some success — Apple picked it as an Editor’s Choice app in 2011, and, hey, it won TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2010 — but it never really blew up.

Earlier this year, the company shifted their focus a bit. In February, they re-launched as an iPhone-only app that focused on the user’s own content, using the technology they’d built before to create movies from the photos and videos in the user’s camera roll.

A report from AllThingsD says that Qwiki was acquired for somewhere between 40 and 50 million dollars. The company had raised $10.5M to date, according to CrunchBase.

Unlike a few of Yahoo’s most recent purchases, Qwiki says their app will stay in the App Store and continue to be supported. The team, meanwhile, will be moving into Yahoo’s New York Office — which, conveniently, is just a few miles from where they already were.

Still wondering what Qwiki does? Here’s a demo video I found on the YouTubes:

And here’s what they did pre-pivot, back when they launched at Disrupt 2010: