Yahoo Acquires Startups Rondee And Ghostbird

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Yahoo Acquires Startups Rondee And Ghostbird

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) continues with its shopping spree of start-ups and yesterday, it added two more to its collection. The internet firm acquired Ghostbird Software, which makes photo apps for iOS, and Rondee, which provides conference calling solutions. The terms of the deal have not been made public.

About Rondee

The conference calling company was started in 2007 and services of the firm will be closed in June. Rondee has also arranged for accounts to work on an alternative service called Instant Conference. It’s not yet clear how the acquisition will be used by Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), but Rondee will be used to support SMBs with marketing, web-hosting and e-commerce.

A message on Rondee’s site says ““When we set out to build Rondee, we sought to help as many small businesses as possible become more productive.” It further reads that the company is excited to join Yahoo!’s Small Business team and will align with Yahoo’s goal of serving small businesses to flourish online

About Ghostbird

Ghostbird Software, which makes photo apps KitCam, PhotoForge and PhotoForge2 for iOS, will also be closed down. The apps have been taken off the App Store, but existing users of the company will still be able to use the apps. The apps company will support Yahoo’s Flickr team which launched a new Android and iOS ap, in May.

Yahoo’s Previous Acquisitions

The acquisitions are a part of a turnaround plan devised by CEO Marissa Mayer. Among all the acquisitions made by Mayer, the purchase of Tumblr last mont, for $1.1 billion is the biggest. Other smaller mobile and social startup acquisitions include Summly, OnTheAir, and Snip.it.

In March, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) acquired Summly, a mobile startup that designs apps for smartphone and tablet users to find, read and share online news and information. The mobile startup was created by Nick D’Aloisio at the age of 15. As per a report from AllThingsD, the deal cost Yahoo roughly $30 million.

In February, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) acquired Alike, a mobile start-up company that designs location-based mobile apps. The app from the company provides information on nearby places or locations. The app also recommends nearby locations to the user based on the user’s taste.

The internet firm also acquired Koprol, a check-in service company in Indonesia.

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