Wednesday, April 27, 2011
For those who hated the new tagging system
YouTube Founders Buy Delicious From Yahoo
Fans of Delicious, an online bookmarking service, raised a ruckus after word leaked four months ago that its owner, Yahoo, might shutter it as part of a streamlining plan.
To deflect criticism, Yahoo quickly reassured users that it was trying to find Delicious a new home rather than kill it.
On Wednesday, Yahoo said that it had succeeded in finding a buyer — a team led by Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, the co-founders of YouTube. Their acquisition is a surprise move for the duo, who quietly left YouTube in the years after it was bought by Google five years ago for $1.65 billion.
“We’re excited to work with this fantastic community and take Delicious to the next level,” said Mr. Hurley, who is chief executive of AVOS, a new company that will own Delicious. “We see a tremendous opportunity to simplify the way users save and share content they discover anywhere on the Web.”
John Matheny, senior vice president of communications and communities for Yahoo, said in a statement that “we spoke with numerous parties interested in acquiring the site, and chose Chad and Steve based on their passion and unique vision for Delicious.”
Yahoo did not disclose the sales price. The change in ownership is expected to take place in July.
Users will need to sign up for new accounts when the service moves to its new home. Their public and private bookmarks will be maintained during the transition and transferred to the new accounts.
Yahoo acquired Delicious in 2005 as part of a start-up shopping spree that included the photo sharing service Flickr. However, Yahoo did little with Delicious and ultimately disclosed in a presentation to employees that it would “sunset” the service, along with others considered tangential, like Upcoming, a social calendar.
The return of Mr. Hurley and Mr. Chen to the Internet world was cast in the press release as “going back to their roots.”
“They’re aggressively hiring to build a world-class team to take on the challenge of building the best information discovery service on the Web,” according to the release.
Labels: announcements
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