April 2 (Reuters) - Yahoo said on Tuesday it had

acquired Instagram co-founders' AI-driven news platform,

Artifact, and will incorporate its technology across the U.S.

web services provider's news and other sites.

The deal signals continued pain for media start-ups

struggling to grow revenue at a time when Big Tech giants

Alphabet and Meta Platforms ( META ) attract the bulk

of advertising sales.

In January, Artifact said in a blogpost it would wind down

operations of its app as "the market opportunity isn't big

enough to warrant continued investment in this way."

Yahoo, which also owns news brands TechCrunch, Engadget and

Yahoo Finance, said Artifact's AI-powered recommendation engine

and other features will help scale its news operations and

deliver personalized content to audience.

The online publisher also owns a minority stake in content

recommendation platform Taboola.

Yahoo, which declined to share financial details, was bought

out by private equity firm Apollo Global Management ( APO ) for

$5 billion in 2021.

Artifact was launched in early 2023 by Systrom and Mike

Krieger. They were earlier at Meta, then known as Facebook,

after the company's acquisition of Instagram in 2012.

The duo had left the Facebook owner in late 2018, which

some

media reports

later described as due to their strained relationship with

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg and differences in their visions for

Instagram.

Systrom and Krieger will work with Yahoo in an advisory

capacity during this transition, Yahoo said in a statement.