FOCAL LABS, the San Francisco photo-sharing start-up founded by Irishman Fergus Hurley, has been acquired by Radium One, an online advertising network.
Financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed.
“Both are private companies, so the terms are undisclosed, but everyone involved with Focal Labs is very happy,” said Mr Hurley.
Mr Hurley, who was born in Galway, founded Focal Labs in 2008 after dropping out of his PhD course at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In his own words he “bought a one-way ticket to Silicon Valley” where he attended a summer course in entrepreneurship at Stanford University.
He co-founded Focal Labs with Brad Smith and Maxime Domain and the firm received initial funding of $200,000 (€154,000) from legendary Silicon Valley venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson and a number of angel investors.
Focal Labs developed a number of apps including Clixtr, which allows photos to be easily shared with other people nearby, eg at a party or sports event, and PicBounce, a simple and fast way to get photos from an iPhone to Facebook or Twitter.
Mr Hurley will be staying on with Radium One, which has raised $33.5 million in venture capital since it launched last year and now employs over 150 staff. The company was founded by internet advertising veteran Gurbaksh Chahal.
Mr Hurley said both firms had a common vision of using social networking insights “to provide better experiences for consumers and advertisers”.
