Yahoo acquired the blogging platform Tumblr earlier this week for $1.1 billion. This would be company biggest acquisition in almost 10 years, and the fourth biggest overall, as far as the validation of the deal is concerned. The following is a list of Yahoo’s 10 largest acquisitions till date:
1. Broadcast.com
Yahoo’s biggest acquisition to date took place in 1999 with its purchase of internet video streaming service Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion. Yahoo promised to “integrate the company’s audio and video programming, business services and advertising programs into Yahoo,” then Yahoo president Jeff Mallett told CNET at the time. Looks like that plan fell through, as Broadcast.com is no more. But it certainly made its founders rich, including Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.
2. GeoCities
GeoCities was one of the first websites where just about anybody could create a basic website and publish it for free. In 1998, it was the third most visited site on the web. But then it was purchased by Yahoo for $3.6 billion in 1999 and slowly faded into the background. GeoCities was eventually shut down in 2009, but still lives on in Japan.
3. Overture
In 2003, Yahoo acquired search engine company Overture for $1.63 billion in a bid to fight off Google’s encroaching search engine business. Obviously, the effort wasn’t a huge success.
4. Tumblr
The $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr in 2013 has been tied to Yahoo’s attempt to revitalize its image and become “cool and relevant” again.
5. Right Media
Online advertising company Right Media was purchased by Yahoo in 2007 for $680 million. The purchase was an attempt to boost Yahoo’s advertising efforts to social networking sites.
6. Kelkoo
Yahoo acquired Paris-based price comparison website Kelkoo for $579 million in 2004. As Kelkoo started losing momentum, Yahoo sold the company to private equity firm Jamplant for $126 million.
7. HotJobs
Yahoo acquired HotJobs for $439 million in 2002. HotJobs performed relatively well, until its market share began to do deteriorate with the onslaught of more competitive startups. And in 2010, Yahoo sold HotJobs to Monster for $225 million.
8. eGroups
Yahoo purchased group email communication service eGroups for $432 million in 2000. Its technology was shifted into what we now know as Yahoo! Groups.
9. Zimbra
Collaborative software maker Zimbra was purchased for $350 million by Yahoo in 2007. Cloud and virtualization software company VMware ended up buying Zimbra from Yahoo soon after in 2010 for an undisclosed amount.
10. Interclick
In 2011, Yahoo acquired Interclick for $270 million. Interclick develops software to help advertisers better target customers online.
