Yahoo has just been gobbling up startups. In the last week or so, it has announced the acquisition of Astrid, GoPollGo, and Milewise. In fact, in a tweet today, Yahoo said that it has “added 22 entrepreneurs to our growing mobile team,” thanks to the three aforementioned companies — plus a mobile gaming startup called Loki Studios.
I’ve reached out to both Yahoo and Loki Studios for details about the deal, but the news seems to be confirmed on the Loki website, where the front page currently announces that the team is joining Yahoo:
It has been a difficult but immensely rewarding journey. We collaborated closely with an incredibly supportive community to continuously iterate and improve upon [Loki Sutdios’ game] Geomon. We were fortunate to have been advised by some of the best mentors in the industry and befriended many of our peers along the way. We surmounted immense obstacles, formed tightknit bonds, and worked through a few too many sunrises.
Now, our journey continues. We are thrilled to be joining the exceptional folks at Yahoo!. We believe fully in their commitment to creating outstanding mobile products. We are excited to learn from, work with, and contribute to one of the most well-known pioneers of the tech industry.
The note is signed by seven Loki team members, so it sounds like they’re all joining Yahoo.
The startup had backing from DCM’s Android-focused fund and it was also part of the inaugural class at the StartX incubator for the Stanford community.
It’s not clear whether Yahoo will actually be doing anything with Loki’s technology, but in case you’re curious, the company says it was working on location-based games, starting with its title Geomon. The idea is to incorporate data about the user’s location — “including the weather, temperature, time of day, season, and geographic region” — into the game: “Therefore, playing our game on the beach on a warm, sunny day provides a different game experience from playing at home in the city on a cold, winter’s night.”
Update: Yahoo just sent me a statement announcing the deal.
Today we welcomed Loki Studios to the Yahoo! mobile team. Their experience in community and location-based mobile services is impressive and we’re excited to have them on the team.
The company said that it’s not disclosing the terms of the deal, and that Geomon will be shut down.
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