Search engine giant
Google has bought two startup operations in its latest round of acquisitions. The companies are Directr, a mobile video tool for business, and Emu, an instant messaging app for iOS. Financial details have not been released.
Directr enables companies to produce professional looking promotional videos for their businesses and the acquisition was probably directed at strengthening YouTube's video advertising capability. The app will become available free of charge to YouTube users. The companies blog said of the news:
"Our small band of scrappy film lovers set out 2 years ago to help regular folks make great video. Today, we are incredibly excited to take the next step on that journey and announce that we are joining the video ads team at YouTube. For now, everything you love about Directr is staying the same and we’ll continue to focus on helping businesses create great video quickly and easily. One immediate bonus: Directr will soon be all free, all the time. Thanks, YouTube! A heartfelt thank you to everyone who’s downloaded and used Directr - we are grateful for your support."
Emu is a messaging tool that offers a "virtual assistant" to help users. With functions very similar to Hangouts and Google Now, it uses artificial intelligence to learn user behavior and make real time suggestions based on contextual data. The company's website suggested that from 25 August 2014 the app will be removed from the iOS App Store and messages between users will be ceased. Aside from an apology, there was no mention of Google's purchase.
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