• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, July 3, 2013

In its latest mobile deal, Yahoo on Wednesday announced acquiring Qwiki, the startup behind the iPhone app that automatically turns a user’s pictures, music and videos into slideshow videos. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but AllThingsD estimated the purchase price at $40 million to $50 million. The tech blog first reported on the rumored deal a few weeks ago.

Yahoo said in a blog post it will continue to support the Qwiki app and the company’s employees would join its New York City office “to reimagine Yahoo’s storytelling experience.” Qwiki launched its iPhone app earlier this year after initially creating an iPad app that creates video summaries of search terms. It had also worked with ABC News in  developing video-creation tools for online publishers.

The Qwiki acquisition follows a string of other mobile startups snapped up by Yahoo over the last year under CEO Marissa Mayer to expand the company’s mobile offerings as users shift from the desktop to devices. These smaller-scale purchases have included Stamped, Jybe, Summly, and earlier this week, Bignoggins Productions, which makes an app for managing fantasy sports teams.

The 15 companies bought since Mayer took over last July also includes the much larger $1.1 billion deal for Tumblr.

Two-year-old Qwiki, co-founded by Doug Imbruce and Louis Monier, who started the AltaVista search engine, had received $10 million in venture funding to date from investors including Lerer Ventures and LIghtbank, along with Facebook co-founder Eduardo Severin. The company made its own Qwiki video about joining Yahoo.