 "Yahoo goes shopping again, acquires inbox service Xobni")
Yahoo has been shopping again. Scooping up three companies in as many days, Yahoo has sealed the deal to acquire inbox service Xobni.
The inbox service acquisition seems to have been made in the hopes to bolster Yahoo’s Mail service. The terms of the deal have not been announced but All Things Digital estimates that Yahoo may have paid somewhere between $30 million to $40 million to take over Xobni. TechCrunch, on the other hand, estimates that the deal was signed for about $60 million.
The inbox service made the announcement of its acquisition by Yahoo on its blog and said that its team was already packing its bags and moving from its San Francisco office to Yahoo headquarters in Sunnyvale. The company announced that it will not be leaving its existing customers out in the cold.
Now picking up Xobni
“We often hear customers say ‘I couldn’t live without Xobni.’Not to worry – we aren’t pulling the rug from under you. If you’re using a Xobni product today, you can keep using it,” the company wrote in a blog post. In a separate FAQ section, Xobni has mentioned that if you’re an existing Xobni or Smartr user, nothing changes for you till July 2, 2014. Smartr Contacts will not be available for Android and BlackBerry anymore.
The company has assured users that if they paid for a service, they will receive all benefits – and probably more – they are eligible for. New purchases for premium products will not be accepted by Xobni anymore.
Yahoo had earlier scooped up iPhone video app Qwiki for somewhere close to $40 million $50 million too. The service will function as a standalone entity inside the Yahoo offices in New York.
The Internet giant also picked up one-man Fantasy sports start-up Bignoggins for an undisclosed sum this week. The acquisition was made by the Internet giant to strengthen its Yahoo Fantasy Sports product. It will be taking on the lone employee of the company, founder Jerry Shen, to work on Yahoo Fantasy Sports. He will be using the technology behind his apps like Fantasy Monster and Draft Monster for strengthening Yahoo’s services.
Intrigued by all things social, Nishtha will invariably tweet about you. When not tweeting or writing about the next viral video, you will hear her proclaiming her love to Metallica, James Hetfield, Opeth, Akerfeldt and all bands that go 'growl'. She also obsesses about ACP Pradyuman and South Park and you will always find her moving around with a book. Her focus is on all the happening stuff in the tech domain, and she won't hesitate to take a shot at some of the oddball devices that make their way to our labs.