3 ms·

It makes perfect sense, they've got some technology out of it, some people who understand mobile, and a nice big headline. Worth $30m of my money? Probably not

It makes perfect sense, they've got some technology out of it, some people who understand mobile, and a nice big headline. Worth $30m of my money? Probably not. Worth $30m of Yahoo's money? Maybe, they're not likely to have decided to spend that much on an acquihire without board approval really are they. Unless they Zuckerberg'd it and thought it was better to seek forgiveness.

alex1 14y ago
The summarization tech isn't owned by Summly. It's owned by SRI International and was licensed to Summly. Maybe a large chunk of the reported $30 million was actually used to acquire that technology from SRI?
- hdra 14y ago
  I actually didn't know about this before. I think one of the first article I read about the product was the story when the product was called TrimIt, and the company just received some investment from Li Ka Shing. For some reason, the articles[1][2][3] gave me the impression that the technology was developed by the founder (or did they switched the algorithms?) [1]: http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2011/12/13/teenage-programmer-backed-by-hong-kong-billionaire-li-ka-shing/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2011/12/13/teenage-pr... [2]: http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/15/trimit-summarizes-emails-blog-posts-and-more-with-a-shake-of-your-iphone/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/15/trimit-summarizes-emails-bl... [3]: http://gigaom.com/2011/12/13/meet-the-internets-newest-boy-genius/ http://gigaom.com/2011/12/13/meet-the-internets-newest-boy-g...
- arunoda 14y ago
  A good answer.
- lubujackson 14y ago
  Here's my conspiracy theory - Summly has a very nice contract with SRI that gives them full usage forever and is transferable to Yahoo. Yahoo tries to license the tech from SRI directly and realize it will cost them 20 mil a year based on their heavy usage. So instead they buy Summly for the SRI tech at a discount. Annnd that's about the only way this makes sense to em.
buro9 14y ago
There is nothing that I can see on Summly's site to suggest that they own their technology. That is, the piece of technology that creates a summary of an article does appear to be licensed from SRI.com
- waitwhat 14y ago
  Maybe it was just quicker/cheaper for Yahoo! to buy Summly and their license than to negotiate their own license off SRI?
Nursie 14y ago
Also free advertising. The BBC had "teenage entrepreneur sells amazing app to yahoo" plastered all over it yesterday.
- Jare 14y ago
  Free as in "costs $30m"? Not to get into who is this advertisement aimed at, and what kind of image value can Yahoo derive from it.
  - Nursie 14y ago
    All the best free stuff costs millions :) Yeah I guess that is a bit of a non-sequitur, but you can't pay to get coverage on the BBC news page (AFAICT) so it sort of works.
- gargoiler 14y ago
  Will anyone really remember it tomorrow though? Nope.
PavlovsCat 14y ago
What is a "people who understand mobile"?

alex1 14y ago

The summarization tech isn't owned by Summly. It's owned by SRI International and was licensed to Summly. Maybe a large chunk of the reported $30 million was actually used to acquire that technology from SRI?

hdra 14y ago
I actually didn't know about this before. I think one of the first article I read about the product was the story when the product was called TrimIt, and the company just received some investment from Li Ka Shing. For some reason, the articles[1][2][3] gave me the impression that the technology was developed by the founder (or did they switched the algorithms?) [1]: http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2011/12/13/teenage-programmer-backed-by-hong-kong-billionaire-li-ka-shing/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2011/12/13/teenage-pr... [2]: http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/15/trimit-summarizes-emails-blog-posts-and-more-with-a-shake-of-your-iphone/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/15/trimit-summarizes-emails-bl... [3]: http://gigaom.com/2011/12/13/meet-the-internets-newest-boy-genius/ http://gigaom.com/2011/12/13/meet-the-internets-newest-boy-g...
arunoda 14y ago
A good answer.
lubujackson 14y ago
Here's my conspiracy theory - Summly has a very nice contract with SRI that gives them full usage forever and is transferable to Yahoo. Yahoo tries to license the tech from SRI directly and realize it will cost them 20 mil a year based on their heavy usage. So instead they buy Summly for the SRI tech at a discount. Annnd that's about the only way this makes sense to em.

buro9 14y ago

There is nothing that I can see on Summly's site to suggest that they own their technology. That is, the piece of technology that creates a summary of an article does appear to be licensed from SRI.com

waitwhat 14y ago
Maybe it was just quicker/cheaper for Yahoo! to buy Summly and their license than to negotiate their own license off SRI?

Nursie 14y ago

Also free advertising. The BBC had "teenage entrepreneur sells amazing app to yahoo" plastered all over it yesterday.

Jare 14y ago
Free as in "costs $30m"? Not to get into who is this advertisement aimed at, and what kind of image value can Yahoo derive from it.
- Nursie 14y ago
  All the best free stuff costs millions :) Yeah I guess that is a bit of a non-sequitur, but you can't pay to get coverage on the BBC news page (AFAICT) so it sort of works.
gargoiler 14y ago
Will anyone really remember it tomorrow though? Nope.

PavlovsCat 14y ago

What is a "people who understand mobile"?