Nick D’Alosio one day decided to create news summarizing application program. Summly gives a 400-character gist of a story but it can link it to the full publication if users choose to. It’s a quick way to skim through articles on a mobile gadget especially when you just need the important facts on busy morning. He was only 15 years old when he launched Summly in December 2011.
Investors were glad to support him, which included Yoko Ono and Ashton Kutcher. Little did he know that Yahoo would be interested in acquiring the company two years later, for a staggering amount of $30 million.
Yahoo is obviously exerting efforts in plutting the multinational company back on the search engine rule. It was started in 1994 by Stanford University engineering students, Jerry Yang and David Filo, who created “Jerry’s guide to the World Wide Web” which was an organized web directory of other sites. It was renamed “Yahoo!” in 1995, which actually stands for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle”. Yahoo’s management positions have been vacated and filled over the years and just recently, former Google director was brought in to work with current CEO Marissa Mayer.
It purchased the social news start up called Snip.it and as part of company-revamping, home-based Yahoo employees will start reporting in the company offices by mid-2013. Mayer has also carried on the redesigns of Yahoo Mail and Flickr, making them more current for the younger internet generation.
How the purchase of Summly will contribute to Yahoo’s company res-moulding remains to be seen. Yahoo said that the company aims to promote young talents, evident in its purchase of Summly from 17-year old D’Alosio who reiterated “Yahoo! has an inspirational goal to make people’s daily routines entertaining and meaningful, and mobile will be a central part of that vision. For us, it’s the perfect fit.” Nick D’Alosio will be paid 90% in cash, and 10% in stocks.
The young entrepreneur is now the most sought after businessman and will be listed in the teenage millionaires group. He’s been programming since he was 12 years old, in the comforts of his home. Like all parents, Nick’s mother was not so sure that a mad hobby of using the computer all day is such a good idea. It looks like she won’t be telling him to get off the PC now that he’ll be working with Yahoo