Flipkart-owned online fashion store Myntra has acquired Bengaluru-based mobile application development platform Native5, reports The Times of India. Native5 offers a cloud-based platform for development and distribution of mobile apps across smartphones, tablets and desktops. The terms and size of the deal have not been disclosed, however, the report mentions that this deal is an acqui-hire. The three co-founders of Native5, Manish Priyadarshi, Barada Sahu and Shamik Datta are expected to be absorbed into the Flipkart technology team. At the time of writing this article, the Native5 website seems to be unavailable. We're not sure if the site has been shut down following the acquisition or if it's a technical issue. We've written to Myntra to find out more about the acquisition and the reason(s) behind it, and will update once we hear back. Native5 was one of the finalists at the India Edition of Qualcomm Ventures QPrize competition for 2012. It was also one of the eight startups that were part of the third batch of Microsoft Ventures Accelerator program in 2013. Myntra was reportedly planning to shut its desktop website on May 1 and shift to an app-only model. However, that plans seems to have been put on hold, at least for now. Note that in March, both Flipkart and Myntra shut down their mobile websites and currently redirect users to the Play Store and App Store to download the respective applications. The app-only approach seems to make more sense for Myntra than Flipkart, as the former claims to already generate more than 90% of its traffic and 70% of…
