According to a report by the Associated Press on Friday, August 3rd Beijing time, Yahoo! has acquired Rockmelt, a social browser startup.
Details of the acquisition have not yet been disclosed. This marks the 20th acquisition deal under Marissa Mayer's leadership in nearly 13 months since her arrival at Yahoo!.
Rockmelt has received approximately $40 million in funding from venture capitalists and other investors since its inception. Industry insiders estimate that Yahoo!'s acquisition price for Rockmelt will definitely exceed this figure.
Most of Yahoo!'s acquisitions have been relatively small-scale transactions. The largest deal so far was the acquisition of Tumblr, which cost Yahoo! $1.1 billion.
In 2010, Rockmelt launched a web browser based on Facebook but did not gain much attention. Subsequently, the company released versions of its web browser tailored for smartphones and tablets.
Some of the technologies developed by Rockmelt may help boost traffic and revenue for Yahoo! on mobile devices, one of the primary tasks facing Yahoo! under Mayer's leadership. Looking at the history of acquisitions, most of the startups Yahoo! has acquired over the past year have focused on mobile computing technology.
Although Rockmelt is not large, it has garnered some attention due to support from several prominent entrepreneurs. Key investors in the company include Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape and renowned venture capitalist.
It is reported that two executives from Rockmelt, Tim Howes and Eric Vishria, who previously worked with Marc Andreessen, will join Yahoo!'s team.