Yahoo continues its string of technology acquisitions
This blog has previously discussed how Yahoo is snatching up technology companies—the most recent being Hulu—in an effort to improve its products and services. Continuing down that same path, Marissa Meyer's organization announced that it had acquired Xobni, which makes address book apps and plugins.
The technology acquisition was first speculated by AllThingsD at the beginning of June. Numerous sources told the tech website that Yahoo paid between $30 and $40 million for Xobni, which recently made the official announcement on its own website.
"The power within every Xobni product is that it responds to how you communicate," the company said in a posting on its website. "Every day you demonstrate who and what is important to you. That can benefit not just your inbox or smartphone, but the many services you use. Yahoo! gets that, and they want us to use our platform to make many Yahoo! services better for you."
A more recent AllThingsD article explained that Xobni had reportedly been looking at other companies but Yahoo co-founder David Filo was especially interested in this opportunity. Filo still plays a key tech role and Xobni CEO Jeff Bonforte previously worked as VP of social search and real-time communications for Yahoo.
Yahoo's products have been expanding beyond its standard Microsoft Outlook plugin, according to the news source, and now supports Google's Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Apple's iCloud. The addition of Xobni and its products could further help in this growth, as Yahoo is trying to increase its Android and iPhone offerings even further.
Regardless of a business' size, M&A activity has the potential to keep it competitive and strengthen the products and services available to its customers.