Facebook buys Vidpresso's team & tech to make live broadcast more interactive

Facebook has acqui-hired Vidpresso, a startup that helps content creators, publishers and broadcasters produce interactive live videos, reports TechCrunch.

As per the deal, Facebook will be buying Vidpresso's team and its technology but not the company itself. Vidpresso team will be joining Facebook's offices in Menlo Park, London and Los Angeles. Deal size or the terms of the deal were undisclosed.

"By joining Facebook, we'll be able to offer our tools to a much broader audience than just our A-list publishing partners. Eventually, it will allow us to put these tools in the hands of creators, so they can focus on their content without spending lots of time or money to do so." Vidpresso said in a note on their website.

"Our customers who currently use the product will continue to be able to do so following our transition to Facebook." the company added.

Founded in 2012, Vidpresso has changed its offerings quite a few times: It initially offered tools for companies to synchronize their presentations with slides and then started offering tools to help broadcasters put social media on television before landing on the current model of helping video creators produce interactive live videos, especially on Facebook Live.

It helped video creators show custom graphics, real time comments, and live polls on their live stream. The Y Combinator-backed company had clients like Univision, BuzzFeed, Turner Sports, Nasdaq, TED and NBC among others.