Nokia announced the acquisition of Redmond-based Twango today. Twango is a site which lets you host and share media — photos, videos, and audio — online. The price was undisclosed, estimated to be around or less than $96.8 million by the WSJ.
A twelve-employee startup, Twango was founded in 2004 by former Microsoft employees (presumably tired of their colorless stock options? 
). Nokia plans to incorporate some of Twango’s technology into its own empire and add several premium offerings into place — to what has previously been a completely free service. Notably, this is one of Nokia’s steps to get back into the Internet business after the 90s bust.
While we didn’t review Twango in its initial launch because it came across as simply another social network with a set of hosting capabilities, which it is, Twango has been able to build a decent and medium-sized community around its wide range of capabilities. For its estimated value, one can only guess Nokia’s incentive in Twango’s acquisition was its technology and established product value.
You can read the official press release over here. Twango will remain in Redmond and continue to expand, which leaves us with something to expect for the future.
