Lytro Shutting Down, Employees Moving To Google

It was first reported last week that light field camera maker Lytro was being acquired by Google. While the internet search giant hasn’t made that announcement yet, Lytro confirmed today in a post on its blog that it’s going to start winding down the company. A significant number of the company’s employees are now said to be joining Google.

Lytro confirmed that starting today it’s not going to take on new productions or provide professional services as it starts to wind down the company. “We’re excited to see what new opportunities the future brings for the Lytro team as we go our separate ways,” it adds.

A source close to the matter confirmed to The Verge that a large number of former Lytro employees are joining Google. However, contrary to the earlier report, Google isn’t going to replace its own light-field photography projects with Lytro’s technology.

The new hires will instead be spread across multiple Google divisions and they won’t continue working on Lytro’s previous projects. Google is said to be acquiring some of Lytro’s assets but doesn’t reportedly plan to integrate them into its own projects.

The previous report had suggested that Google was going to pay between $25 and $40 million for the company but it’s now said to be more of a hiring deal than an outright acquisition. Google hasn’t commented on the matter as yet.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: General
Tags: Google, lytro