We last reviewed Summly last November, as an innovative news app that uses a unique algorithm to summarize articles into short form. This morning, Yahoo! has announced it has acquired the company, founded by Nick D’Aloisio when he was just 15 years old. Part of this acqui-hire means the Summly app itself will close, but its technology will soon be seen in an upcoming Yahoo! mobile initiatives.
Today, we’re excited to share that we’re acquiring Summly, a mobile product company founded with a vision to simplify the way we get information, making it faster, easier and more concise.
Yahoo! looks to further make itself relevant in the mobile space, as CEO Marissa Mayer continues to move the company forward. When she came on board last fall, she gave all her employees free smartphones (including the iPhone 5), plus launched revamped Yahoo! Mail and Flickr iOS apps. We would expect Summly to make its mark in the existing Yahoo! News iOS app.
Update: According to Kara Swisher from AllThingsD, Yahoo! bought Summly for about $30 million dollars:
[UPDATE: Sources tell me Yahoo paid just about $30 million for Summly, mostly in cash, with 10 percent in stock.]
