Flickr, the photo sharing website, has been acquired by premium photo hosting company SmugMug. Based on what SmugMug are currently saying I’m hoping that this might actually be a good thing.

Flickr and SmugMug will continue to operate as separate entities indefinitely, although CEO Don MacAskill says he doesn’t yet know what his plans are for Flickr.

“I don’t know what the future holds. This is a new model for me,” he said. “We certainly think we need to operate it with an eye to our cash flow and our profitability. We are going to have to take a detailed look at the business and make sure it’s growing and healthy.”

MacAskill also said that before making any decisions he want to collect feedback from employees and users.

Existing Flickr accounts will carry on working in the same was as they do now, both for free users and Flickr Pro subscribers. Over time, SmugMug will migrate Flickr onto their technology infrastructure, meaning that users’ photos will be moved to SmugMug. However, the photos will remain accessible on Flickr.

I suppose the answer to all this is that ‘only time will tell’.

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