News Corp.'s Photobucket Merges with Ontela, Lands Funding

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 16, 2009 - 11:53am.

Denver - Photobucket, the image-sharing service acquired by News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) in 2007, announced on Wednesday that it will merge with Ontela, a provider of imaging services for wireless carriers.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Ontela's investors, which include Oak Investment Partners, Voyager Capital, Steamboat Ventures and Convera Ventures, will also make an additional capital investment as part of the merger, and will hold significant equity stakes in the combined company.

News Corp. will also hold a significant equity stake in the company.

Photobucket claims more than 22 million monthly unique users in the U.S., and says more than 11 million photos, graphics and videos are uploaded to the site every day.

Ontela's software is used by more than 30 wireless carriers, including Verizon and T-Mobile, to offer customers the ability to have their camera phone photos automatically uploaded online.

http://www.photobucket.com

http://www.ontela.com