Polyvore Shut Down After SSENSE Acquisition

Polyvore is on the cusp of being bought out by Montreal-based fashion site SSENSE from Verizon’s Oath, but it seems the acquisition will be the end of the road for the firm, according to news from TechCrunch.

Adding to the “another one bites the dust” files that have become thicker of late, SSENSE has already shut down Polyvore. All that remains is its user data, which SSENSE is collecting and redirecting to its site.

Terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed.

Oath, the Verizon subsidiary, is but one of many steps on the ownership chain for Polyvore. Previously, the Pinterest-esque shopping site and social hangout was bought by Yahoo when it was still in the midst of its post-search digital makeover under Marissa Mayer. That, of course, didn’t go all that well, and the $200 million investment Yahoo made into Polyvore didn’t translate into a big win for Yahoo on the eCommerce front.

Polyvore then followed Yahoo into the waiting arms of Verizon — and eventually its Oath subsidiary.

SSENSE took interest sometime thereafter but saw more value in moving the Polyvore shopper base into the SSENSE domain rather than running two similar but separate eCommerce sites.

In a blog post, the Polyvore team noted that as of today, the company’s website will discontinue operations and that the Polyvore apps will no longer be supported. Users can request to download their data from the service until May, at which point it will all flow to SSENSE.

It’s a rough ending to a long story — and a disappointing run for a firm that survived not one but two big acquisitions only to be washed out of existence by the third.

Cold comfort in this case might be that they’re at least not alone: Polyvore users were one of many Yahoo buys that ended up stagnating post-purchase — either due to mismanagement or to just not being the right purchase for Yahoo.