Earlier this week, Yahoo announced that it had acquired Aviate, a startup providing contextually relevant information on Android homescreens, but it didn’t say anything about the acquisition price. Now a source with knowledge of the deal tells me that the acquisition was for $80 million.
My source didn’t know any of the details beyond the amount — the mix of cash and stock or how much of the total is tied to an earn out, for example. Regardless, that’s an impressive price for a young startup that raised a $1.8 million Series A (from Highland Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and others) less than a year ago. (It was also incubated at StartX.)
When I reached out for this story, spokespeople from both Yahoo and Aviate declined to comment on the terms of the deal.
Yahoo has been on a pretty visible acquisition streak since Marissa Mayer took over as CEO. Last month, for example, it acquired content delivery network provider PeerCDN. During her keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show, Mayer said that Aviate’s technology will allow Yahoo to deliver content in “smarter and more personalized” ways on Android phones.
Update 1: Another writer heard from a source who said the number was actually $20 million, not $80 million — which seems more realistic given the amount that Aviate has raised. However, when I contacted my source (again, it’s someone who’s in a position to know the price), they confirmed that the number was $80 million. We’re trying to figure out where these different amounts are coming from. It’s possible that different parties are choosing to interpret the deal in different ways (again, depending on how stock options, earn out, etc. are counted), but honestly I’m not sure.
Update 2: I’ve confirmed with a second source that the acquisition price was $80 million.
Update 3: And we’ve heard a third source that the price was $80 million. They also confirmed an earlier rumor that Aviate had been talking to Dropbox as well, which may go some way toward explaining the price.
