Shutterfly, Inc. (Nasdaq:SFLY), an Internet-based social expression and personal publishing service, announced that it has acquired Photoccino, a developer of ground breaking technologies for photo ranking, analysis and organization based in Haifa. The US company said that Photoccino’s employees will join Shutterfly and continue to be based in Haifa. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed but market sources believe that Shutterfly paid $10-20 million for the Israeli start up. The company has raised less than $1 million since it was founded in 2011.
Photoccino’s advanced image analysis and selection technologies will be integrated into products across the Shutterfly, Tiny Prints, Wedding Paper Divas, and Treat brands. Photoccino’s capabilities will enable Shutterfly's customers to more efficiently organize and select the best photos from their growing archives so they can quickly and easily create photo books, calendars, cards, and photo gifts. Photoccino’s technology applies proprietary algorithms to analyze and evaluate the quality and content of photos, ranks them, and automatically creates photo products using the customer’s best images.
Shutterfly president and CEO Jeffrey Housenbold said, “We are focused on developing innovative solutions that make the product creation and sharing process easier for our customers. Photoccino’s best in class technologies solve a common consumer pain point: analyzing and organizing the increasing number of stored digital photos. By combining their intuitive technology with our innovative product offering, we will exponentially improve the creative experience for our customers.”
Photoccino CEO Moshe Bercovich said, “When we founded Photoccino in 2011, our goal was to build technologies that would facilitate image analysis, selection, and product creation for our users. Shutterfly presents us with the opportunity to achieve this at much greater scale. The two companies share a passion for helping people enjoy, share and preserve photos, and we are excited by the prospect of what we can accomplish together.”
Bercovich founded Photoccino last year along with CFO Liav Even-Chen, CSO Alexander Kenis, VP R&D Eran Cohen and lead develoiper Yohann Sabbah.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 31, 2012
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