Just a week after rolling out Carousel, an iOS and Android app that serves as a gallery for all your photos and videos, Dropbox has acquired Loom, a startup that offers photo and video storage to Apple device users. The startup's eight-person team will join Dropbox on the Carousel project.
"This decision was made with great care. We have worked hard on our product and feel that our vision aligns perfectly with Dropbox's vision for Carousel", said the company's co-founder Jan Senderek. The deal was announced on the startup's blog.
As part of the acquisition, Loom will no longer be enrolling new users, and will officially shut down on May 16. Existing users can continue to use the service until then, and will be able to export their data directly to Dropbox with no interruption in service. Users will receive a follow-up email with more details and instructions, the company said.
Those who choose to switch to Carousel will receive the same amount of free space they had on Loom on Dropbox, forever. And if you were a paid customer, you'll be given the same quota on Carousel/Dropbox for free, for an entire year.
Around the same time, Hackpad, a popular collaborative documents service, has also announced it would be joining forces with Dropbox. The wiki-style collaboration and note-taking tool offered a way to share notes taken at conferences and events in real-time.
The acquisition could boost Dropbox's broader plans to move into online collaboration. Unlike Loom, Hackpad said it would continue to accept new customers and support old ones.