HP's Snapfish acquires video host Motionbox

From CNET News.com: Hewlett-Packard's photo- and video-sharing service, Snapfish, on Monday announced that it has acquired video host Motionbox.

Snapfish, which was acquired by HP in 2005, has long had its own video-sharing tools, as well as a burgeoning photo-printing business. However, a business was never built around the site's video-sharing tools, which were used mostly for private sharing among friends and families.

Motionbox, on the other hand, began as a free and paid video offering, with a side business for selling DVDs and even flipbooks made out of user videos.

Alongside Motionbox's consumer offering, the company also ran a professional video-hosting service that gave businesses a nonbranded video player and a higher-priority spot for encoding. Some of its customers included companies like Gawker Media, AOL, Bebo, and Snapfish rival Shutterfly.

HP says the "current Motionbox site" will remain open until August 10, after which Motionbox's technology will presumably be integrated into Snapfish.com.

According to a Motionbox representative who CNET got in touch with, "All videos on Motionbox will need to be downloaded by August 10 at which time the service will move over to Snapfish." For the trouble, Snapfish is giving Motionbox premium users a free year of Snapfish's video service.

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