Yahoo is a dead duck and now it is hastening its demise by splurging on a useless app.
yahoo is killing 3 birds by acquiring summly. removing a potential competitor, owning the innovative and patented machine-to-human language parsing algorithm that is at the heart of a news aggregation solution, and focusing on the need for optimzed apps for the mobile eco-system.
yahoo is still doing extremely well in news aggregation (their no. 1 product), and they will like to see challengers going away or disappearing. worse would be when someone else like google were to acquire a more innovative, better gui and mobile friendly news aggregation alternative. google has already took majority market share on search from yahoo. search was originally yahoo's no. 1 product. but no longer. they have taken over mapping, email, lbs, etc. it's just a matter of time before google put renewed focus on yahoo's 3 remaining engines of strength and growth for ad revenues: news, finance, sports.
next, although yahoo has revamped their pages and web browsing experience for mobile users, there have been serious complaints. summly provides a better user experience for youths with mobiles, and getting youths interested in news seems like pulling teeth, but the summly gui and algorithm may change that near impossibility. it's a segment of the mobile population that yahoo wishes to tap into, but has hitherto unable to secure. the unique algorithm of merging machine and human language cross-referencing and comparisons to make micro decisions for display can also be used in other platforms, not just for news aggregation.
28 mil is chump change in silicon valley for a company trying to remake itself. a couple of dollars per stock in stock appreciation will easily pay for such an insignificant purchase.
