Yahoo Acquires Teen Entrepreneur's News Gathering App, Summly Summly to shut down but founder and his team expected to join Yahoo.
By Jason Fell
It has been a wild few months for 17-year-old British developer Nick D'Aloisio. His news gathering app, Summly, reached 500,000 users in December. Three months later, the app has been acquired by Yahoo Inc., the tech giant announced today on its blog.
As a result of the deal, D'Aloisio and the Summly team will join Yahoo and the Summly app will be shut down. Summly allows users to skim and share news quickly, in short summaries. In the coming weeks, "you will see the technology come to life throughout Yahoo!'s mobile experiences," Yahoo said.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. It's expected to close sometime during the second quarter, according to Yahoo.
D'Aloisio taught himself to code at age 12 and started developing iPhone apps in 2008. After launching Summly's news-summarization mobile app, D'Aloisio received widespread attention from media and investors. Actor Ashton Kutcher and Zynga founder Marc Pincus are among its early angel investors and advisors.
Rumors had circulated back in December that Yahoo was eyeing Summly for a potential acquisition. Last week, Yahoo aslo acquired recommendation app Jybe, which was co-founded by three former Yaahoo employees.
Related: The New Cool Kids: Teenage-App Developers
