Yahoo is said to be in the advanced stages of discussion to acquire Qwiki for $50 million. Kara Swisher at All Things D cites sources close to the company.
Qwiki launched to the public back in January of 2011, with funding led by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin. At the time, we compared it to a Wikipedia in which all the articles were read to you in a robot voice while showing you related imagery. A great deal has changed with Qwiki over time, however.
These days, Qwiki is a more focused on mobile storytelling with an app that lets users make little videos using pictures, music and other videos. The company shut down its web platform earlier this year.
Yahoo has been buying companies left and right, and has been in the discussion for a number of other acquisitions. Tumblr (which hasn’t actually closed yet) is the big one, of course, but last week, news also came out about Yahoo acquiring conference call software company Rondee and photography software company Ghostbird Software. The company is also rumored to be acquiring Xobni.