Yahoo buys Chinese startup Ztelic to boost R&D
- 18 July, 2013 22:35
Yahoo has made yet another acquisition, this time picking up Beijing-based data analysis startup Ztelic to boost its research and development efforts in China.
The deal, announced Thursday, is Yahoo's second acquisition in two days and its 19th since former Google executive Marissa Mayer was made CEO of Yahoo a year ago this week.
Ztelic developed a software product for analyzing and monitoring activity on social networks. Yahoo said it bought the company for the engineering talent, which has been the motivation for a few of its recent buys.
"As part of our investment in our R&D efforts, we're bringing on a talented team of eight developers and engineers from Ztelic," Yahoo said in a statement via email.
Ztelic was founded by Hao Zheng, who formerly was chief architect at Yahoo's R&D labs in China and who also worked at one time for games developer Zynga in Asia, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He's now returning to Yahoo, where he'll play a "critical leadership role" at its R&D center in Beijing, Yahoo said. Terms of the acquisition weren't disclosed.
It's been a busy week for Yahoo. On Monday it reported its quarterly earnings, which showed a jump in profit but declining revenue. Two days later, it said it had bought Admovate, which makes technology to improve ad targeting on smartphones.
James Niccolai covers data centers and general technology news for IDG News Service. Follow James on Twitter at @jniccolai. James's e-mail address is james_niccolai@idg.com
