Yahoo has acquired Rockmelt, a Silicon
Valley startup that built a Web browser
tied to Facebook's social network.
Terms of the deal announced Friday
weren't disclosed. It's the 20th
acquisition that Yahoo Inc. has
completed since Marissa Mayer became
the Sunnyvale, Calif., company's CEO
nearly 13 months ago.
Rockmelt has raised about $40 million
from venture capitalists and other
investors since its inception. That makes
it likely Yahoo had to be above that
amount to buy Rockmelt.
Most of Yahoo's purchases have been
for relatively small amounts of money.
There has been one notable exception
so far: Yahoo's $1.1 billion acquisition
of Internet blogging service Tumblr
.
Rockmelt unveiled its Facebook-focused
Web browser in late 2010, but it never
gained traction. The Mountain View,
Calif., startup later introduced a
version designed for smartphones and
tablets.
Some of that technology could help
Yahoo in its effort to bring in more
traffic and revenue from mobile
devices, one of Mayer's top priorities.
Most of the other startups snapped up
by Mayer also have been focused on
mobile computing.
Although small, Rockmelt attracted a
fair amount of attention because of
its pedigree. The company's financial
backer include Web browser Marc
Andreessen, who has established
himself as one of Silicon Valley's top
venture capitalists since first making
his mark as a co-founder of Netscape
Communications.
Two of Rockmelt's top executives, Tim
Howes and Eric Vishria, formerly
worked with Andreessen. Both of them
are joining Yahoo.
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