Twitter Buys Mobile Blogging Startup Posterous

Twitter on Monday announced that it has bought mobile blogging startup Posterous and will put engineers behind the popular "lifestreaming" service to work on special projects.

"This team has built an innovative product that makes sharing across the Web and mobile devices simple -- a goal we share," San Francisco-based Twitter said in a blog post.

"Posterous engineers, product managers and others will join our teams working on several key initiatives that will make Twitter even better."

Posterous launched in 2008 as a platform for blogging with an emphasis on letting people use smartphones to post pictures, videos, audio or other digital snippets and share them with groups in virtual "Spaces."

The legions of Posterous fans have grown along with a "lifestreaming" trend in which moments are captured throughout the day and shared in online journals.

"The opportunities in front of Twitter are exciting," Posterous founder and chief executive Sachin Agarwal said in a message at the freshly-acquired San Francisco startup's website.

"We couldn't be happier about bringing our team's expertise to a product that reaches hundreds of millions of users around the globe."

Posterous Spaces will continue to operate with users of the firm's free application promised they would get plenty of notice of any changes to the service, according to Twitter.