Yahoo has made a new acquisition, this time of a more behind-the-scenes asset than a Tumblr or Blink. Yahoo has made a deal with mobile analytics company Flurry, and despite the fact that you've probably never heard of the company before, it could be one of the largest Yahoo buys under CEO Marissa Mayer.
As mobile software technology companies go, Flurry is a relatively old one. Started in 2005, Flurry is a mobile analytics, advertising platform and ad monetizing company all rolled into one.
Since then, Flurry has become an essential tool for many developers, publishers, and advertisers seeking to get the most out of the mobile web: for example, Flurry boasts that 170,000 developers use their analytics platform for over half a million apps. Flurry analytics looks at apps on 1.4 billion devices per month, with up to 5.5 billion app analysis sessions being conducted per day.
To give a sense of what those figures mean, on average, according to the company's release, your mobile device -- or anyone else's -- will contain seven apps that use Flurry Analytics.
Yahoo hopes that kind of success can help strengthen its own mobile app offerings, as well as to help Yahoo more effectively implement mobile advertising and other monetization options.
Yahoo's mobile arm currently isn't as prominent or successful as some of its competitors, like Google or Facebook. But the company has turned around on how important mobile apps and advertising is for its overall strategy, evidenced by some recent and surprisingly strong app debuts, like the innovative Android home launcher, Aviate. The Flurry acquisition, Yahoo hopes, will build on that momentum and help Mayer's company compete in the increasingly huge world of mobile apps.
It'll also (Yahoo likely hopes) help Yahoo spot mobile usage trends, provide valuable advertising information, and, with its massive network of data, give Yahoo an information advantage in the app economy. And quite a competitive advantage at that, considering that Flurry tracks more app usage on more mobile devices than Google or Facebook, according to Forbes.
"When completed, our acquisition of Flurry will be a meaningful step for the company and reinforces our commitment to building and supporting useful, inspiring and beautiful mobile applications and monetization solutions," wrote Yahoo SVP of Advertising Technology Scott Burke in the company's blog post announcing the acquisition deal. "By joining Yahoo, Flurry will have resources to speed up the delivery of platforms that can help developers build better apps, reach the right users, and explore new revenue opportunities. Together, we will make Yahoo mobile experiences better through products that are more personalized and more inspiring."
The terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but according to Re/code's sources, the price tag could make the Flurry deal one of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's largest, with a possible price in the "hundreds of millions" of dollars.
After the acquisition, according to Yahoo, Flurry's team will remain right where they are and will continue with the same "vision, mission, and focus," though it's safe to assume the focus will shift towards anything Yahoo needs to jumpstart its mobile strategy.
