Yahoo has acquired photo advertising startup Luminate

Yahoo is continuing their buying binge in a bid to strengthen its core online advertising offerings. Fresh off their $240 million purchase of mobile analytics standout Flurry in late July, and 13 other companyies so far this year, Sunnyvale-based Yahoo bought interactive photo ad network Luminate Friday for an undisclosed sum and did what they sometimes do when buying a company. They shut it down. In a post on the Luminate homepage early Friday evening, chief executive and co-founder James Everingham said the startup’s more than 10,000 publishers and customers would have until Oct. 1 to access existing accounts and information before the plug was pulled. The post stated: “We are thrilled to be joining Yahoo where we can continue to bring innovative experiences to an even larger audience. We will be stopping all of our in-image services as of Wednesday, September 3, 2014. If you are a Luminate publisher, our JavaScript snippet will no longer run anything on your site. If your site(s) have individually earned over $10, you will be receiving a final payment for each site by September 30, 2014. If you are a Luminate Direct advertiser, you will be refunded the remainder of your balance by September 30, 2014.”