Twitter Buys Machine Learning Firm -

Twitter on Monday said it would buy Magic Pony Technology, a London-based firm that has developed novel machine learning techniques for visual processing. "Magic Pony's technology --based on research by the team to create algorithms that can understand the features of imagery -- will be used to enhance our strength in live and video and opens up a whole lot of exciting creative possibilities for Twitter," the San Francisco-based firm's co-founder and chief executive Jack Dorsey said in a post on the company' blog. "We are continuing to build strength into our deep learning teams with world-class talent to help Twitter be the best place to see what's happening and why it matters, first." Twitter's acquisition of Magic Pony builds on other investments the firm has made in machine learning, beginning with the acquisitions of Madbits in July 2014 and Whetlab in June 2015, Dorsey said. While Dorsey did not disclose the terms of the deal, sources told TechCrunch that Twitter is paying up to 150 million to buy Magic Pony, which also takes into account retention bonuses for the 11-member staff, including co-founders Zehan Wang and CEO Rob Bishop.