In an email sent out to users early this morning, Picturelife cofounder and CEO Nate Westheimer announced that the company had been acquired by StreamNation, the Cloud storage platform that allows people to securely store, stream, and share their media content online. According to StreamNation, Picturelife will remain intact, and Picturelife’s employees will join the StreamNation team.
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“We’re tremendously proud of the experience we’ve built with Picturelife, and we couldn’t be happier to join forces with StreamNation, a company we’ve long admired,” said Westheimer in the official release. “Our mission was always to build a smart home for all your photos and videos, and to deliver a world-class user experience. Bringing our users onto the StreamNation platform lets Picturelife continue that mission, and together we can deliver an even better experience to our customers. StreamNation and Picturelife have a shared philosophy, and we’re excited to continue our journey together.”
We reached out to Westheimer – who will be leaving his post as CEO – regarding the value of the acquisition; the financial terms of the deal are not being disclosed, according to a representative from StreamNation. With the acquisition, StreamNation users will get access to all the features currently available on Picturelife.
Founded in 2011, Picturelife was created as a simple Cloud service allowing users to store their photos simply and safely. Last summer, though, Picturelife developed into something much bigger. Relaunching its mobile app (and revamping its web app), Picturelife gave users a seamless way to sync their photos from their smartphones directly to Picturelife’s Cloud storage, and essentially gave them an alternative to their native photos app/folder. The upgraded app also gave users access to a slew of different features (which StreamNation can now offer all their users), including contextual smart search, Aviary photo editing, face and duplicates identification system, enhanced image sorting, and a feature that let users share and create conversations around pictures.
For Picturelife users, nothing will change – according to a blog post written by StreamNation founder and CEO Jonathan Benassaya. From login, to users’ media content, everything will remain the same. Personally, this is a huge relief, considering that I’ve been a fan (and user) of Picturelife since they relaunched last July. He does hint, however, that changes may come in the future; Benassaya writes:
“In the short term, PictureLife will stay the same. In the long term we will make sure to keep PictureLife’s DNA and continue the impressive work achieved by the team until today.”
For now, though, Picturelife users should have nothing to worry about. Read our previous Picture coverage here.