Shutterfly to buy ThisLife photo archive and sharing service

Shutterfly has made a name for itself by offering a streamlined way for photo buffs to turn their snapshots into scrapbooks, calendars, prints and other products. Now the company has acquired ThisLife, a cloud-based photo-sharing and archiving service which offers both paid and free subscription tiers. Earlier this month, TechCrunch reported on a rumor that pointed to the impending acquisition, and it appears that those sources were spot-on.

According to a press release regarding the deal, Shutterfly plans to use ThisLife's tech to further flesh out its product-creation process. "Consumers will be able to safely and easily preserve, organize and share their memories, regardless of where photos are stored -- from Facebook to Picasa to mobile phones," the release reads. "ThisLife's intelligent organization platform offers features like facial recognition and presents photos and albums in an elegant timeline for convenient sharing and product creation."

Shutterfly already maintains an iOS app and ThisLife has promised that its own app is on the way for iPhone and iPad, so it will be interesting to see what changes are in store on that front. Shutterfly hasn't revealed the price for which it acquired ThisLife, but notes that additional details will be revealed in its next earnings call.