Yahoo Buys Coolness From Teenager for $30M
There’s no logical explanation for Yahoo’s reported $30 million acquisition of Summly, an app created by a 17-year-old Brit that launched five months ago. The team and technology are unexceptional and the app itself will be shut down. What Yahoo really gets for its big check is momentum and buzz.
In other words, Yahoo bought Summly to appear cool again.
Yahoo was last cool in approximately the mid 1990s. It has been attempting comebacks ever since. Its best stab at renewed relevance came in 2005, when Yahoo bought a string of hot startups, including bookmarking service Delicious, photo-sharing pioneer Flickr, and events site Upcoming. For a brief moment, people in Silicon Valley sat up and took fresh interest in Yahoo. But once Yahoo’s crop of golden founders started walking out the door, the optimism and innovation quickly faded.
