Yahoo buys mobile-marketing company Sparq
Jan 22, 2014, by admin
Continuing on its buying jag, Yahoo acquired mobile-marketing company Sparq. This is just one of several small startups Yahoo has gotten its hands on in the past few months.
Sparq lets users switch between apps on their smartphones and could be enticing to marketers because it is said to drive people’s app usage. Having Sparq integrated into Yahoo could help Yahoo boost and monetize its mobile audience.
“We are uber passionate about mobile — we’ve been striving to build the best mobile platform possible, and are excited to continue upon that goal with Yahoo,” Sparq founder and CEO Jesse Chor said in a statement. “Words cannot describe how ecstatic we are to be joining such an amazing team with such an inspiring mission. We see endless opportunity ahead.”
Yahoo’s earnings haven’t been too stellar as of late. Last quarter, the company reported that its earnings were down 91 percent from a year ago. One of the reasons for the low earnings, however, is that the company has spent a bundle on acquiring a long list of startups. Last quarter, Yahoo spent $163 million on buying other companies.
In December alone, Yahoo bought content-speeding startup PeerCDN, “virtual venue” startup Evntlive, and Siri-like natural language software startup SkyPhrase. Earlier last year, the company bought a slew of startups, including e-commerce startup Lexity, location-based mobile app maker Alike, and to-do app maker Astrid.
The financial terms of the Sparq deal were not disclosed. Sparq said it will be stopping its current service and contacting customers with further details.
