Stock photo marketplace ClusterShot, which once aimed to rival Getty Images-owned stock photography giant iStockphoto, has managed to avoid hitting the deadpool after all. As we reported earlier, ClusterShot was to shut down on the 21st of February.
Now it appears the site will live on, although photo uploading and new account creation will remain temporarily suspended until the switch to a new owner has been finalized.
After setting up an auction for the purchase of the site, 20 or so bidders made an offer for the business, and one of them was apparently tasty enough for ClusterShot parent company silverorange to bite.
The buyer requested not to disclose the final purchase price, but we learned from one of the losing bidders that ClusterShot went for a – measly – $25,000.
In a message posted to the ClusterShot blog, the new owner, investor Dominic Ang, says the long-term plan is to ramp up investment in building new features and new capabilities in the ClusterShot platform.
ClusterShot was one of the ventures of Canadian web development company silverorange, which counts Digg’s creative director and co-founder of Pownce Daniel Burka among its co-founders and partners. We’ve fished it out of the TechCrunch deadpool.