Shutterfly folding Tiny Prints into main site

GaryPageau
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Shutterfly is continuing the consolidation of the various brands the company gathered during the heyday of its buying spree. According to a post on the Shutterfly site, Tiny Prints stationery and other products will be “exclusively available on Shutterfly.”

Founded in 2004, the bootstrapped Tiny Prints started as a birth-announcement company, gaining traction as it added other categories like holiday cards, wedding invitations, personalized stationery, etc. By 2009, the company launched Wedding Paper Divas as a sister site. In 2011, Shutterfly spent $333 million on both brands, which was a tidy ROI on a business that was started with a $10,000 initial investment by the three founders, Ed Han, Kelly Berger, and Laura Ching. By 2017, Shutterfly had folded Wedding Paper Divas back into Tiny Prints.

As the history of acquisitions

Over its more than two-decade history, Shutterfly grew through acquisition. Today, the company is centered around its Shutterfly, Snapfish (acquired when Shutterfly was purchased by Apollo Global Managment), Lifetouch (acquired in 2018), and Shutterfly Business Solutions businesses.
For years, Shutterfly was on a buying spree, snapping up creative personalized product brands, like Spoonflower, and adjacent technology companies like ThisLife and BorrowLenses. Over the past few years, as Shutterfly managed its considerable debt obligations, it reduced its production footprint, closed facilities, and sidelined brands it once promoted.
In particular, Shutterfly has been actively right-sizing its national school photos business, Lifetouch National Studios (which recently commemorated its 100th anniversary). Purchased in 2018 for a staggering $825 million, the deal initially looked, on paper, to be a solid win. (Read our assessment at the time here.) Our prediction at the time has proven true: “Independent photo retailers and professional photographers win, as they will continue to gain share at the expense of Lifetouch. This has already been the trend and will continue.”
In recent months, Shutterfly has divested Lifetouch from key markets, including selling its Canadian business to Everest Solutions, and the bulk of its senior studio business to CADY.
In 2021, Shutterfly bought Spoonflower, a marketer of custom textiles, wallpaper, and home decor, for $225 million. Since then, the Spoonflower founder has departed, and the company’s Durham, N.C., plant shuttered, with production folded into Shutterfly. Once a marquee brand under the Shutterfly banner, Spoonflower now exists as basically a print-on-demand site.
Among the acquisitions that are better left not mentioned in the present Shutterfly context:

Groovebook – The “Shark Tank” featured mobile photo book subscription service was acquired for $14.5 million in 2014 by then-CEO Jeff Housenbold, then quietly shuttered (pun intended) by 2022. Read the story at SlashGear here.

Kodak Gallery – Purchased out of bankruptcy from the Eastman Kodak Co. in 2012 for a bargain of $23.8 million, the users migrated directly onto the main Shutterfly platform. The move also prevented any other competitor from using the name “Kodak” for an online photo service.

BorrowLenses – Another Housenbold acquisition in 2013, BorrowLenses rented photography gear and camera lens rental service. Terms weren’t disclosed. BorrowLenses operated under the portfolio until May 2024, when it was sold to Lensrentals.

MyPublisher – Shutterfly acquired this custom photo book software pioneer in 2013 and shut it down four years later.

ThisLife – Shutterfly spent $25 million in 2013 for ThisLife, an early leader in cloud-based facial recognition, organizing, and photo-sharing.

Penguin Digital  – In 2012, Shutterfly spent an unspecified amount on Penguin Digital, makers of the Mobile Photo Print Shop App “MoPho.”

Photocinno – Shutterfly purchased Photocinno, a developer of technologies for photo ranking, analysis, and organization, in 2012.  Recently, Shutterfly closed the R&D facility in Haifa, which was the descendant of Photocinno.

Tiny Pictures – In 2009, Shutterfly made its first significant acquisition: Tiny Pictures, a mobile photo-sharing and community-focused application for basically a fire sale. According to TechCrunch, after raising a total of $11.2 million since its founding in 2005, Tiny Pictures sold to Shutterfly for $1.3 million in cash and another $1.3 million in restricted stock to employees. Soon after, Shutterfly launched photo-sharing app Wink, which allows users to easily turn their pictures into photobooth-esque strips of pictures.

Nexco Systems – In January, 2008, Shutterfly purchased Nexco Systems, a privately held online sharing and group services company, for aggregate cash and stock consideration totaling less than $15 million, according to published reports. The technology became the basis for Shutterfly Share Sites, a once-popular feature to let groups privately share photos. Share Sites were discontinued in 2023.

Written by 

Gary Pageau is principal of InfoCircle LLC, continuing his marketing communications career. InfoCircle LLC is a marketing and communications consulting firm, specializing in business-to-business markets. For nearly 25 years, he was with PMA International, serving most recently as Publisher, Content Development and Strategic Initiatives. His primary responsibilities included overseeing the Association’s editorial department, marketing research unit, education and corporate relations department.