Yahoo Buys Flickr Photo Sharing Service

Posted on March 21, 2005

Yahoo has purchased Flickr, an online photo sharing service, and its parent company Ludicorp. This is one of the biggest purchase of a social site. Ludicorp employees will relocate to Yahoo's offices in Sunnyvale, California. Flickr offers technology that allows users to post photos, sort photos using tags and label different parts of a single photograph.

The Flickr purchase comes shortly after Yahoo announced the launch of Yahoo 360, a service that will combine blogging and social networking. CNET reports that Flickr will remain a standalone site for now. There are no currently plans to merge it with Yahoo 360.

Update: The acquisition price has not been revealed. SiliconBeat reports that a source told them the deal was for $30 million. It was likely a stock and cash deal.