Yahoo Acquires In-image Ad Platform Luminate

A sample Luminate ad from its site
A sample Luminate ad from its site

Yahoo has acquired Luminate, a platform for in-image advertising, for an undisclosed amount.

Founded in 2008 as Pixazza, Luminate enabled advertisers to run simple text or display banners, overlaid onto relevant pictures online –  for example, a photo from a fashion shoot might feature an ad for shoes.

Following the acquisition, however, the business has shut down its offering. The Javascript code that publishers could integrate into their site has stopped working, and Luminate will pay out the earned balance by the end of the month.

Its currently unclear whether this means that Yahoo wants to relaunch the same platform under its own name, or that it bought Luminate for its crowdsourcing and image detection technology to be deployed in another part of the business.