Yahoo is continuing with its push into mobile with the acquisition of messaging app Blink. The move has been made to snag the developer talent behind the software, with the seven-member team on Tuesday announcing that the Snapchat-style app will be closed in the coming weeks.
Blink is the work of Meh Labs, a start-up created by two former Google employees, Kevin Stephens and Michelle Norgan. The cross-platform app allows users to send texts and media files to friends, though the messages are only viewable for a certain amount of time before ‘self-destructing’.
In a post announcing Yahoo’s buyout, the pair said they were looking forward to “the possibilities that will come from bringing the Blink vision to Yahoo.”
Yahoo has been in the process of acquiring start-ups ever since Marissa Mayer took the reins in July 2012, with the company having snapped up around 40 so far. The CEO sees mobile and the ad revenue it generates as key to getting the company back on its feet following a torrid few years prior to her arrival.
Most of the acquisitions have been for the talent and technology behind the products, with Mayer giving incoming hires the opportunity to work on new or existing mobile software at the Sunnyvale, California company.
Yahoo isn’t the only major Internet company to get its hands on apps in the messaging space in recent times. Facebook put down a colossal $19 billion for WhatsApp back in February, while the social networking giant apparently also offered several billion dollars for Snapchat in 2013. The offer was declined.
The terms of the Yahoo-Blink deal haven’t been disclosed.
