With all the negative press about Yahoo recently, including the exodus of 115 executives since January 2007, it’s easy to forget about the incredible history of one of the first internet companies.
Founded in 1994, Yahoo began as a basic web directory and eventually evolved into an internet giant. On April 12, 1996 Yahoo went public with a intra day market cap high of $1 billion. (See Internet IPOs for more).
With the capital from their IPO Yahoo was now able to expend via both in house development and outside acquisitions. During the internet boom Yahoo made one of the biggest dot.com purchases ever with the $5.7 billion acquisition of Broadcast.com in July 1999. Broadcast.com was an online audio service created by Mark Cuban to stream live audio coverage of his favorite sporting events. Yahoo’s purchase of Broadcast.com made Cuban an internet legend, a billionaire and a future owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. At the time of the purchase Broadcast.com was a publicly traded company (BCST) who saw its stock rise over $7 to $125 after the announcement.
Yahoo’s first acquisition was for Net Controls in September 1997 for $1.4 million. Yahoo acquired ViaWeb, a developer of web commerce tools, for $49 million in stock in June 1998. In October 1998 Yahoo began its quest for free email service with the purchase of Four11 (Four11 offered a free email service via a product called RocketMail) for $92 million in stock. Today Yahoo Mail is one of the largest drivers of traffic to the Yahoo network. Yahoo announced its acquisition of Geocities in January 1999 for $3.6 billion.
Yahoo jumped into the marketing world with the purchase of Yoyodyne in October 1998 for $29.6 million in stock. Yoyodyne allowed Yahoo to collect user data and act as an intermediary between its users and commerce clients. Yahoo purchased its popular Launch music site with its acquisition of Launch Media in June 2001 for $12 million. In December 2001 Yahoo purchased the online job search company HotJobs for approximately $436 million. Inktomi was purchased in December 2002 for $235 million followed by Overture in July 2003 for $1.63 billion. In April 2004 Yahoo purchased Kelkoo, a European comparison shopping site, for $579 million.
Below is a partial list of Yahoo’s acquisitions which have helped shape this diverse portal.
Yahoo! Acquisitions History:
- September 1997 – Yahoo acquires Net Controls for $1.4 Million
- October 1997 – Yahoo purchases Four11 for $92 Million
- March 1998 – Yahoo purchases Classic Games
- June 1998 – Yahoo picks up ViaWeb for $49 Million
- July 1998 – Yahoo acquires WebCal
- December 1998 – Yahoo acquires Yoyodyne for $29.6 Million
- December 1998 – Yahoo acquires Sportacy
- January 1999 – Yahoo acquires Hyperparellel for $8 Million
- February 1999 – Yahoo acquires Log-Me-On for $10 Million
- May 1999 – Yahoo purchases GeoCities for $3.6 Billion
- May 1999 – Yahoo purchases Encompass for $130 Million
- June 1999 – Yahoo acquires Online Anywhere for $80 Million
- July 1999 – Yahoo purchases Broadcast.com for $5.7 Billion
- November 1999 – Yahoo acquires MyQuest
- March 2000 – Yahoo acquires Arthas.com
- August 2000 – Yahoo acquires eGroups for $432 Million
- November 2000 – Yahoo purchases Kimo for $145 Million
- April 2001 – Yahoo acquires Sold.com for $30 Million
- June 2001 – Yahoo acquires Launch Media for $12 Media
- January 2002 – Yahoo acquires Hotjobs for $436 Million
- December 2002 – Yahoo acquires Inktomi for $235 Million
- February 2003 – Yahoo acquires Alltheweb for $100 Million
- October 2003 – Yahoo acquires Overture for $1.63 Billion
- January 2004 – Yahoo acquires 3721
- April 2004 – Yahoo acquires Kelkoo for $579 Million
- July 2004 – Yahoo buys Oddpost
- September 2004 – Yahoo picks up MusicMatch for $160 Million
- October 2004 – Yahoo buys Stata Labs (email search software)
- August 2004 – Yahoo picks up Farechase (online travel)
- March 2005 – Yahoo acquires Ludicorp Research (Flickr) for $40 Million
- March 2005 – Yahoo buys Stadeon (multiplayer video games)
- June 2005 – Yahoo acquires Dialpad
- June 2005 – Yahoo buys Blo.gs
- July 2005 – Yahoo acquires Konfabulator (Pixoria)
- August 2005 – Yahoo buys a 40% stake in Alibaba (Chinese eCommerce) for $1 Billion
- October 2005 – Yahoo picks up Upcoming.org
- October 2005 – Yahoo acquires WhereOnEarth
- December 2005 – Yahoo buys del.icio.us
- October 2006 – Yahoo acquires AdInterax (rich media advertising)
- November 2006 – Yahoo acquires Bix
- April 2007 – Yahoo buys Right Media (online advertising) for $680 million
- June 2007 – Yahoo purchases Rivals.com (college sports)
- September 2007 – Yahoo buys Zimbra (next generation messaging) for $350 million
- September 2007 – Yahoo acquires BlueLithium (global ad network) for $300 million
- February 2008 – Yahoo purchases Maven Networks (online video) for $160 million
- April 2008 – Yahoo acquires IndexTools (web analytics software for marketing)
For additional internet M&As visit Internet Acquisitions and Biggest Internet Mergers & Acquisitions
