Marissa Mayer Makes First Yahoo Acquisition: Stamped

http://mashable.com/2012/10/25/yahoo-acquires-stamped/

by kine • 14 years ago

72 57 14 years ago

mashable.com

revelation• 14 years ago

Great. Hiring your buddies by acquihiring their failing iPhone app startup.

cloudwalking• 14 years ago

If you need really good iOS devs this is an effective way to get them.

codeonfire2• 14 years ago

The founders don't appear to be devs, one guy is a product manager, another started his career as a tech manager. The other worked on "partnerships and marketing". Quoting crunchbase here.

If I were a formed stamped dev and now a Yahoo dev, I would quit Yahoo and form a startup. After all, Yahoo bought their work for lots of money.

cpeterso2• 14 years ago

Acquihiring startups is probably easier than convincing good developers to join Yahoo.

001sky3• 14 years ago

Just in a different form: $$$ is the great convincer.

-- The market

nswans2• 14 years ago

You sound bitter.

If you've used the product, you can see that it was beautiful, usable, and the performance was solid. If we assume that the product is failing (even though they've raised two rounds of funding from seasoned and celebrity investors alike), we know that the team can execute well. Mayer wants to move to mobile-first, so acqui-hiring a team who know how to build well for mobile can be a smart move. It may also attract talent who respects that team. Perhaps Stamped wasn't growing like they planned, but I'm sure they and Mayer think that with the right direction at Yahoo they can do great things.

Who knows if it will work out. But it seems like a solid partnership for both sides.

jlarocco• 14 years ago

Ha! I'm inclined to agree that their product was doing well simply because it was discontinued immediately after Yahoo bought them.

Isn't killing successful products what Yahoo is known for?

phillmv• 14 years ago

raising funds != success

What was that comparison? No one says, "congratulations on that huge loan you just took out!".

I'm sure the team was great, but I'm confused as to why we should be lauding this state of affairs. If they were making money, then why should they all have up and left to go work at Yahoo!?

From the, admittedly poor on information and high on snark, position I'm comfortably seated on it seems like you had a great team that was wonderfully subsidized by VC that managed to save face with an 'exit'.

I'm sure it's really fun to go through the motions, but I don't really see the part where they added value; I only see an elaborate social signaling event (again, obviously the team is competent, filled with A players) fully subsidized by Yahoo! shareholders.

If I'm missing out on something I'd love to know about it.

barredo• 14 years ago

How can we all know if Stamped was failing? Care to share?

webwright3• 14 years ago

Here's how they've done: https://www.evernote.com/shard/s4/sh/80502dd0-c6d7-49f2-9a8c...

Definitely not a mobile success-- but they built pretty, intuitive, usable software that didn't break.

webwright3• 14 years ago

Way to add to the conversation.

Hiring your "buddies" is WAY lower risk that acqui-hiring strangers. They are a known quantity AND they have enough loyalty that they probably won't bolt the instant they are able. They'll also probably work harder for you than the average acquihire.

This is how the world works-- and it makes sense. It isn't just bullshit "who you know rather than what you know". Moral of the story is that you should kick ass, work hard, and make friends with executives-- it'll give you an alternative to startup-death when YOUR startup fails.

samstave2• 14 years ago

>It isn't just bullshit "who you know rather than what you know".

I dont believe in your assessment.

iand5• 14 years ago

All you say is correct, even down to the "it's who you know line", but I disagree that we should exploit it or even tolerate it. It's just Cronyism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cronyism) and my personal moral compass rejects it.

majani• 14 years ago

I've began to think of late that this may be the most prevalent market inefficiency in the world. Hiring people you know without due process is a big reason for the incompetence that creeps into companies after a while.

This means that consistently hiring objectively while following due process could be considered a competitive advantage.

nicholassmith• 14 years ago

Well, they were failing in terms of user traction and numbers yes, but the app itself was really nice to use, well designed and will give Yahoo a nice iOS developer talent pool to work with.

Buying a successful iPhone app start up would have been way more expensive.

codeonfire2• 14 years ago

The very first thing I though when reading this was one or all of these guys were former Google APMs.

lincolnq• 14 years ago

Stamped was an awesome (and beautiful) product. Sad to see it go.

phodo• 14 years ago

As an alternative, I created wishtunes.com plus iOS app a few years ago back in 2009. Check it out. Happy to provide coupons so you don't have to pay for it.

snuze• 14 years ago

Congratulations to the Stamped team and good luck to Yahoo.

On another topic, has anyone else noticed Marissa's hands in that photo?

bluetidepro• 14 years ago

> "On another topic, has anyone else noticed Marissa's hands in that photo?"

WHAT THE. Here is a zoomed in screenshot: http://bluetide.pro/j6ch - What the heck is going on there? Bad Photoshop?

cpeterso2• 14 years ago

Wristwatch too tight?

ktsmith• 14 years ago

The screwed up fingers are probably bad photoshopping/artifacts around the rings she wears on her left hand.

rglovejoy• 14 years ago

She had a baby just a few weeks ago.

absconditus• 14 years ago

Why must this stupid shit appear on HN as well now?

reinhardt• 14 years ago

What's up with this infatuation with Marissa Mayer? I don't remember reading about "Mark Zuckerberg acquiring Instagram" or "Steve Ballmer buying Yammer". Sheesh.

EDIT: Wow that was quick, three downvotes in less than five minutes. Must have missed the memo that she's the new Steve Jobs, or something.

dangrossman• 14 years ago

Practically all the coverage of the Instagram acquisition was centered around Zuckerberg personally. As a new CEO, her first actions bear close scrutiny, the same way Mark's did when his company was about to go public. It's not some special infatuation with Mayer specifically.

The headlines from back then:

* The Instagram Deal: A Mark Zuckerberg Production [NYTimes.com]

* Zuckerberg did $1 billion Instagram deal on his own [CNET]

* With Instagram Buy, Mark Zuckerberg Shifts Facebook Into Acquisition Mode [Forbes]

* Mark Zuckerberg Announces Instagram Acquisition By Facebook [Huffington Post]

* Instagram Was Mark Zuckerberg's Last Hurrah as Facebook's Hacker King [The Atlantic]

TallGuyShort• 14 years ago

Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Ballmer didn't take the helm at dying companies with the expectation that they alone would lead a significant change. Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg have always been fairly synonymous. Yahoo and Marissa Meyer - not so.

stevoski• 14 years ago

Dying company? How so?

hellmans2• 14 years ago

Many Google detractors (largely composed of fans of Apple, for what that's worth) see Mayer as, bizarrely, the anti-GOOG. They think she's going to open a second front on Google while somehow being universally aligned with Apple.

Bizarre, but there you have it. The people who are interested in / cheering for Mayer will almost always be carrying an iPhone.

upinsmoke• 14 years ago

Great. Another thread turned in a discussion about Apple.

smartwater• 14 years ago

She's the youngest Fortune 500 CEO, what do you expect?

kurtvarner• 14 years ago

Stamp's blog post about the deal: http://stamped.com/learn-more

mlchild• 14 years ago

Stamped was a very well-designed, well-thought-out app, but its failure to take off proves no one has cracked the "anti-yelp" recommendation app yet. Someone's going to figure it out.

smegel• 14 years ago

It's great they are putting mobile at the forefront of their strategic direction.

I don't think Yahoo's web presence can be salvaged - they have just fallen too far behind Google, Facebook, and the multitude of other leading social platforms.

But mobile is a chance for Yahoo to reset it's identity, it's brand, it's UI, it's relationship to users. It has a chance to become cool again.

amorphid• 14 years ago

That doesn't have to be true. It's still quite possible to build a website that grows to be huge. Although I would agree it's unlikely someone will build a portal-style site that displaces a Facebook or Google.

stevewilhelm• 14 years ago

Wondering why a talented group of developers that left one large Silicon Valley-based search company to form a startup would work for another large Silicon Valley search/media company.

Marissa Mayer Makes First Yahoo Acquisition: Stamped

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