Yahoo Acquires And Shuts Down Startup Ptch

Ptch, a startup that spun out of Dreamworks Animation, has been acquired by Yahoo and will shut down on January 2, 2014, the company announced on its website.

Terms were not disclosed.

Ptch's mobile video app was launched about a year ago and let users remix their videos with effects and music, reports TechCrunch's Matthew Panzarino.

The project was the brainchild of Dreamworks CTO Ed Leonard, who left Dreamworks to become the startup's CEO, using an old storage room on the Dreamworks campus as his first office, the Verge reported at the time. However, his LinkedIn profile shows he left Ptch and returned to Dreamworks in February. (We've reached out and asked.)

Cofounder Hans Ku, who announced the acquisition, also worked at DreamWorks, as did many early employees. There was about 20 employees as of a year ago, Panzarino reports.

From the blog post announcing the buyout, looks like this is an acqu-hire, with Ptch employees joining Yahoo. Here's the announcement:

We launched Ptch just over a year ago. Our passion and our mission was to give you the best way to make and share beautiful movies made from the photos and videos on your phone. Well, someone noticed!

Today, we're excited to announce that Ptch will be joining Yahoo! As part of the Yahoo team, we'll be able to focus our efforts and leverage our technology to make Yahoo's photo and video platforms the best in the world.

As part of this transition, Ptch will shut down on January 2, 2014. Until then, you can download your ptches on ptch.com or save them to your camera roll from the Ptch app on your phone:

On ptch.com, go to your profile page. Click on the title of the ptch and then click on the download button.In the Ptch app, go to your profile. Tap the share icon under the ptch and then tap "Save to Camera Roll."

Thank you so much for being a Ptch user and fan. We are grateful for your support and look forward to bringing you more exciting products through the Yahoo platform in the future.

All the best,

Hans and the Ptch Team