Yahoo's Entire, Sorry Acquisition History (original) (raw)
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When Yahoo CTO and product boss Ari Balogh said the company wants to buy a few social media startups and smartphone application-makers, we took the bait and came up with a list of five companies Yahoo should buy.
Here's the problem with our list: Yahoo isn't very good at buying companies.
For the latest example, there's Jumpcut, which Yahoo acquired in 2006 and will finally shutdown on June 15, according to an email Yahoo (YHOO) sent its users:
Jumpcut Users
After careful consideration, we will be officially closing the Jumpcut.com site on June 15, 2009. Therefore, we are no longer accepting new uploads. This was a difficult decision to make, but it’s part of the ongoing prioritization efforts at Yahoo!
We have released a software utility that allows you to download the movies you created on Jumpcut to your computer. As well, you can now download your original assets. See the download page to get started.
Once you download your movies, you may choose to upload them to another site such as Flickr, which now allows video uploads. You can find out more here: http://flickr.com/explore/video
Thanks for your understanding and thanks for being a part of Jumpcut.
The Jumpcut Team
The failed Jumpcut buy isn't the only Yahoo buy to bust. In fact, looking at a long list of acquisitions Yahoo's made since its founding in 1994 -- -- ok, we found it on Wikipedia, so tread carefully -- we found three acquisitions we like in retrospect: fantasy sports site Sportasy, search marketing pioneer Overture and Flickr parent-company Ludicorp. It's too early to tell if Right Media will pay off for Yahoo.
If we're way off base here, please correct us in the comments or email nicholas@businessinsider.com.
Update: A reader says Yahoo made some smart acquisitions during its early days:
- ClassicGames. The price was $1M. It became Yahoo! Games. Probably the single best ROI on an acquisition Y! ever made.
- ViaWeb became Y! stores, another good buy.
- WebCal became Y! calendar, also a good buy.
- Four11 became Y! Mail. Another good buy.
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This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? .