Yahoo moved to strengthen the mobile portion of its revamped Flickr photo sharing service, acquiring the developer behind a popular photo editing app.
The company said Wednesday it had purchased GhostBird Software, the company behind the PhotoForge mobile photo editor and Kitcam camera app. Yahoo made it clear the apps would be integrated into Flickr, which received a major upgrade last month and now comes with a free terabyte of storage.
"Today we acquired GhostBirdSoft for Flickr. Get ready to see your mobile photos in a whole new light!," the Internet company posted to its Twitter account.
Rondee, a provider of free conference calling services, also said it had been acquired by Yahoo. The firm posted a message on its homepage saying it would join Yahoo's small business division and that its service is no longer available for new users.
The acquisitions are the latest in a string under Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who is rebuilding the company on the fly. Yahoo said last month it would acquire the Tumblr blogging service for US$1.1 billion, adding to a host of recent buys including the mobile recommendations app Stamped, video chat broadcaster OnTheAir and gaming infrastructure startup PlayerScale. The firm has also reportedly been bidding for Hulu, the popular streaming video site.
Yahoo has recently redesigned its homepage, updated Yahoo Mail, and launched a new weather app. It has also scrapped services including Yahoo Deals, Yahoo Kids and its Upcoming events notification platform.
GhostBird's PhotoForge was one of the first full-featured mobile photo editors. The app includes standard features such as resizing and cropping, as well as the ability to adjust photo elements such as white balance, exposure, and noise. The program also offers in-app purchases to add pre-designed effects.
GhostBird said it has removed its software from the App Store and will no longer update it as iOS is updated.