Mobile payments solution provider Square has announced that it has bought the photo-sharing and group messaging app Viewfinder.
New York-based social startup Viewfinder was founded by Spencer Kimball, Peter Mattis and CEO Brian McGinnis and operates with less than a dozen of employees. All the staff will be joining Square.
Earlier this year, the iOS version of the Viewfinder app was launched but could not manage to generate much downloads. However, Square's acquisition announcement suggests that it is focusing less on the app and more on the 'bright' team behind it.
"On a personal note, I couldn't be more excited to work again with Spencer, Peter, Ben, et al.," Square's CTO Bob Lee wrote in the blog post. "We crossed paths again at Google where they kindled the Google NYC engineering office and spearheaded key infrastructure."
The team of Viewfinder, which includes former engineers from Google, will be in charge of working on "seller initiatives" and subsequently helping to grow Square's New York presence.
Post acquisition, Viewfinder app will not be discontinued but it won't be updated either. "Existing users will still be able to use the Viewfinder app for the time being, although we will no longer be releasing updates or providing customer support," Viewfinder announced in a separate blog post.
Since its inception, this is Square's third acquisition. In 2011, the payments company bought a video production group, followed by a New York design firm called 80/20 last October.
The terms of the deal are yet to be announced.
