Flurry's reports offer all kinds of information about future trends in the app market, but even Flurry's data scientists may not have seen this coming: an acquisition by Yahoo for a reported $200 - $300 million.
"Our acquisition of Flurry will be a meaningful step for the company and reinforces our commitment to building and supporting useful, inspiring and beautiful mobile applications and monetization solutions," Yahoo's senior VP of advertising technology Scott Burke wrote in a blog post announcing the deal. "By joining Yahoo, Flurry will have resources to speed up the delivery of platforms that can help developers build better apps, reach the right users, and explore new revenue opportunities. Together, we will make Yahoo mobile experiences better through products that are more personalized and more inspiring."
Developers have made use of Flurry's products for years to help them better understand consumer adoption and engagement patterns. Their reaction on Twitter was, it must be said, decidedly mixed. There were a few who seemed to be genuinely cheering the move.
Smartest buy for Yahoo to date? Yahoo Is Buying Mobile Analytics Firm Flurry For North Of 300M http://t.co/6FqU8BkpcN
— Hillel Fuld (@HilzFuld) July 21, 2014
Wahoo for Yahoo... http://t.co/qerx12F03K
— paulthind (@paulthind) July 21, 2014
There were others, however, who seemed to see only the worst in Yahoo and Flurry joining forces.
Time to abandon Flurry then? #wpdev
— Scott Lovegrove (@scottisafool) July 21, 2014
That said, there was certainly a recognition of what Yahoo's strategy was based on, given the increasing move to access many of its services via smartphones.
#Yahoo looks to improve #mobile experiences. RT @sfiegerman It's official: Yahoo is buying Flurry http://t.co/PbRzmDf4vi …
— ThoughtwireMobile (@TWMobileWeb) July 21, 2014
Perhaps the hopes of many developers within Flurry's customer base could be summed up as follows:
Yahoo, please don't screw this up: Yahoo Is Buying Mobile Analytics Firm Flurry For North Of 300M http://t.co/O8Wmrb5nn8
— Moe Salem Korayem (@Korayem) July 21, 2014