Yahoo acquiring startup Flurry to boost mobile business

[Himanshu Arora]

In an effort to bolster advertising revenue from smartphones, Yahoo yesterday announced that it is buying mobile analytics and advertising startup Flurry.

"Our acquisition of Flurry will be a meaningful step for the company and reinforces our commitment to building and supporting useful, inspiring and beautiful mobile applications and monetization solutions", said Scott Burke, Yahoo's ad technology chief. Flurry also confirmed the deal in a blog post.

Although financial details of the deal weren't disclosed, reports suggest that the deal could be worth anywhere between $300 million and $1 billion, one of the largest acquisitions by Chief Executive Marissa Mayer.

Founded in 2005, Flurry focuses on optimizing the mobile experience for developers, marketers and consumers through personalized ads and mobile analytics. The service, whose technology is installed on 500,000 apps, gets insights from 1.4 billion devices a month.

Flurry's current list of customers includes Snapchat, the BBC, Zynga, and Skype. The startup has received just over $70 million in venture funding from players like Draper Fisher Jurvetson and First Round Capital, and its last $12.5 million round was in December.

For Yahoo, the move seems logical, as the company has been trying to up its mobile efforts. The web giant currently has more than 450 million monthly users of its mobile apps like Yahoo Weather, Yahoo News Digest, and smartphone versions of its email and Flickr services.

Although the company has started selling ads inside these apps, its mobile revenue is still small. In fact, it is so small that the company still does not break it out, other than to say that the figure is "meaningful".

Google and Facebook currently dominate the market for mobile ads with more than 50 percent and 22 percent share, respectively. On the other hand, Yahoo's share is estimated at well under 1 percent.

The news comes almost a week after Yahoo reported disappointing second-quarter earnings results, with display revenue falling as much as 8 percent from the same period last year.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/57486-yahoo-acquiring-startup-flurry-to-boost-mobile-business.html

 

[captaincranky]

Yeah, we need more ad agencies, about as much as we need more law firms.

BTW, this has sat here for nine hours and this is the 1st response. That's pretty much indicative of how much people care about what Yahoo is doing these days.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Yeah, we need more ad agencies, about as much as we need more law firms.

BTW, this has sat here for nine hours and this is the 1st response. That's pretty much indicative of how much people care about what Yahoo is doing these days.

Don't worry, now that you've posted here there should be a... ahem... Flurry of activity. Yes.

 

[captaincranky]

Don't worry, now that you've posted here there should be a... ahem... Flurry of activity. Yes.

Really, love me, hate me, no difference really. It seems very few have the stones or self control to ignore me, (*). ROFLMAO.

EDIT: I should have added here (*), "and lack the common sense to recognize satire when they see it.