Yahoo is adding to its mobile lineup with the acquisition of analytics company Flurry. It is paying more than $300 million for the San Francisco-based startup, which analyses data from smartphone users so developers can better understand their audiences, and helps brands target ads on devices, giving Yahoo more pathways for mobile promotions.
Yahoo chief executive officer Marissa Mayer, who has called mobile a key part of her turnaround effort, has stepped up dealmaking as she looks to jump start growth at the web portal. The Sunnyvale, California-based company last year spent about $1.1 billion on blogging platform Tumblr and has since bought several smaller companies, including mobile-homescreen provider Aviate and video-distribution platform RayV. Yahoo has announced or completed at least 12 acquisitions this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“It ties right into Yahoo and mobile first and all of the investments we’re making into mobile today,” Scott Burke, Yahoo’s senior vice president of advertising technology, said in an interview yesterday. “Flurry is the next logical step to extend our reach. They have a great brand.”
He declined to comment on the price of the deal.
Flurry will continue serving customers while collaborating with some of Yahoo’s services, including advertising features, Burke said, without being specific.
Technology blog TechCrunch reported yesterday that Yahoo was buying Flurry. Bright Spot Yahoo last week reported second-quarter results that included a 4.5 percent sales decline from a year earlier. Revenue, excluding that shared with partner websites, was $1.04 billion, missing analysts’ average estimate of $1.09 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Mobile was a bright spot. Mayer said revenue from graphically based ads on portable devices more than doubled during the quarter, with mobile users growing to about 450 million, up from slightly more than 200 million two years ago. With the deal,
Flurry will gain the resources of a larger company and experience in ramping up services to bigger audiences, CEO Simon Khalaf said in an interview. More than 170,000 developers use data from Flurry.
“This is a commitment to work with the app developer community on helping them build better applications, helping them monetise,” Khalaf said.
Flurry, which was co-founded by entrepreneur Sean Byrnes in 2005 and provided a mobile e-mail service in 2006, has raised more than $60 million from backers including Union Square Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Menlo Ventures. Khalaf was named CEO in 2008. The company's customers include Pinterest Inc. and Snapchat Inc.
Bloomberg
