Layar’s augmented reality product offering will continue following the company’s acquisition by rival Blippar.

The deal announced this week delivers a total client base of more than 5000 brands and publishers and 100,000 self-publishing partners in more than 175 countries.

Founded in 2009, Layar introduced one of the first mobile AR browsers – with an app which has now been downloaded 38 million times – its open development platform attracting the attention of developers worldwide. A self-service print creation tool introduced in 2012 is used by more than 80,000 publishers and editors.

With offices in Amsterdam, New York and Toronto, it had been funded by Intel Capital, Sunstone Capital and Prime Ventures.

Blippar co-founder and chief executive Ambarish Mitra recalls his own company’s 33-month success story, “from building prototypes in the living room of my flat to connecting millions of consumers to thousands of brands around the world, and making the verb 'to blipp' synonymous with AR experiences.

“To me, Layar has always demonstrated that it shares this vision of an augmented world. Now working together as one team, we will further define what consumer augmented reality needs to be, and what will be required to deliver it on a global scale as an intuitive daily behaviour."

Layar chief executive Quintin Schevernels says the two companies had a shared vision and ambition: "Both companies have been exploring the market very successfully over the past years,” he says.

“Since they are extremely complementary, joining forces creates the undisputed global market leader in its industry.”

He says the new combination will “further fuel ambitions” and has the potential to change the way people interact with the physical world forever.

Research and development capabilities of the two businesses will be combined, but Mitra says they will maintain the relative target market positions of each. Blippar's core strength had been high-end and large brands and publishers, whereas Layar's platform, white label technology and self-publishing tool had targeted the long tail of the market with lower budgets.

Blippar recently announced image-recognition capabilities for Google Glass, as well as AR gaming technology for the platform.