Everyone in the tech startup space has heard about Yahoo’s $1.1 billion purchase of Tumblr. But what about other recent acquisitions?
So far this year, Yahoo has snapped up small seed- and early-stage companies in a bid to bring in fresh talent and sharpen its competitive edge in mobile and social media. And while most of these purchases appear to be smaller transactions, the numbers add up.
Source: REUTERS/Beck Diefenbach
Marissa Mayer, president and CEO of Yahoo, answers questions during the Reuters Technology Summit in the Thomson Reuters offices in San Francisco in June. Under her leadership, Yahoo has snapped up many companies in a bid to bring in fresh talent and sharpen its competitive edge in mobile and social media.
Over the past several months, under the leadership of President and CEO Marissa Mayer, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company has bought at least 20 startups, with the majority of those transactions for undisclosed prices. Of the companies purchased this year, about half have said they previously raised venture funding or seed financing from a VC.
There’s nothing that comes to close in size to the Tumblr deal. Yahoo’s apparent next-biggest purchase, of mobile search tool developer Qwiki earlier this month, was for a reported $50 million. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Qwiki previously raised about $9 million from Tugboat Ventures, Lightbank, Lerer Ventures and Contour Venture Partners.
Other venture-backed companies that Yahoo has bought recently include email analytics provider Xobni, news summary provider Summly, social media Web browser Rockmelt and content sharing app developer Snip.it.
In the accompanying chart, we look at Yahoo’s acquisitions over the past year, focusing on company business model, purchase price, and prior venture and angel funding.
