Pinterest in talks to acquire VSCO photo app maker, says New York Times

[TOKYO] Pinterest has held talks to buy Visual Supply, maker of the VSCO photo-editing app, according to a New York Times report citing two people with knowledge of the matter.

The 10-year-old VSCO platform shares some of the early appeal of Instagram, offering a distinctive set of film-like photo filters along with an image editor. The company, still focused on its titular product, has added video-editing tools and raised US$90 million in funding. It was last valued at US$550 million.

Discussions with Pinterest, another firm centered on images and visual expression, are ongoing and a deal price couldn't be learned, the report said. A Pinterest representative declined to comment on deal talks to the paper, while VSCO's Julie Inouye told Bloomberg News that "we're always meeting with different companies across the creative space at any given time and do not discuss rumors."

A year ago, VSCO cut 45 jobs in response to the coronavirus outbreak, with Chief Executive Officer Joel Flory explaining on LinkedIn that the startup "would need to shift towards running a self-sustaining business." It currently has 100 million registered accounts, 75 per cent of which are under the age of 25, the company said.

For Pinterest, which functions as a place to collect and share images, acquiring the VSCO editing suite and user base would help grow its audience and potentially enhance what its own mobile app can do.

BLOOMBERG