Yahoo! will acquire Summly, the news snapshot app, to the approval of shareholder Stephen Fry.
While the deal is still subject to closing conditions, but expected to complete in the second quarter, Yahoo! announced today it was acquiring the mobile news reading company. This deal was worth an estimated £18 million, the Guardian reported.
Created by a then 15 year old Nick D’Aloisio, the app delivers snapshots of news stories, as a way to browse articles on a mobile device, Yahoo said.
“For publishers, the Summly technology provides a new approach to drive interest in stories and reach a generation of mobile users that want information on the go.”
According to his company bio, Mr D’Aloisio is now 17, just to make you feel more incompetent.
Mr D’Aloisio would join Yahoo! in the next few weeks, it said, but the Summly app itself would close, with its technology being used in Yahoo!’s own mobile offerings soon.
Celebrity shareholders, oh my!
Summly’s shareholders include the first venture capital backer, Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka Shing of Horizons Ventures, whom Mr D’Aloisio thanked in his blog post about the acquisition.
Angel investors and advisors of Summly included Ashton Kutcher, Yoko Ono and Stephen Fry, the latter of which tweeted his approval of the deal this morning.
