Yahoo has purchased Summly, a new application developed by a UK teenager, that sorts news by topics in quick bites for smartphones.
According to the technology blog AllThingsD, Yahoo is said to have paid about $30m for the acquisition and it is expected to strengthen Yahoo’s mobile services.
Summly was founded by Nick D’Aloisio two years ago in London and works closely with News Corp, and the venture was backed by Chinese investor Li Ka-Shing and angel investors including actor Ashton Kutcher and artist Yoko Ono.
Nick D’Aloisio said Yahoo would use the technology that powers Summly to reinvent the delivery of information such as news, weather, stocks and finance for mobile devices.
"What I am excited about with Yahoo is under the new leadership of Marissa Mayer, it’s a classic Internet company that has such a big opportunity," D’Aloisio said.
The Summly app will be combined with Yahoo’s online services, mainly its list of mobile services. "With over 90 million summaries read in just a few short months, this is just the beginning for our technology," D’Aloisio said. "As we move towards a more refined, liberated and intelligent mobile web, summaries will continue to help navigate through our ever expanding information universe."
