14 DAY TRIAL // Yahoo Inc. has recently announced that it signed an agreement for the purchase of Citizen Sports, a company that delivers sports information to the social networking sites where fans are connected and to mobile devices through appealing applications. Yahoo! expects for the acquisition to translate into a more powerful social strategy of aggregating and distributing social content from around the Web, and should enable it to provide users with a highly customizable social experience.
“Yahoo! is in a unique position to combine our deep expertise in content and aggregation technology to offer a highly personalized social experience,” said Bryan Lamkin, senior vice president, Consumer Products Group, Yahoo!. “Sports has been among the earliest online categories to experience rapid social proliferation, and the combination of Citizen Sports leading products with our world-class sports experience on Yahoo! Sports is a win-win for sports fans globally.”
Citizen Sports’ array of social and mobile products are used by millions of people all around the world for playing fantasy sports, to check live scores or to read last minute news on various sports, including baseball, cricket, football, hockey, soccer, racing, rugby or hockey. The Yahoo! Sports’ content is expected to be integrated with these products so that sports fans can enjoy an enhanced experience no matter where they are. Yahoo! Sports already has a number of more than 39 million monthly unique users in the US.
According to the company, Yahoo! Sports will offer users the possibility to create or join discussions with other fans, cheer for their teams via Citizen Sports’ software solutions, or broadcast their allegiances. Moreover, the integration is expected to result into turning Yahoo! in a more personal experience, while also increasing the user engagement and providing advertisers with more opportunities regarding their interaction with audiences. The acquisition is expected to be completed during the second quarter of the ongoing year.
Citizen Sports’ network includes popular applications for Facebook, MySpace, hi5, iPhone, and Android which deliver professional, college and high school sports. “Citizen Sports was founded with the intent to enable fans to access news, scores and fantasy games on the platform of their choice,” said Mike Kerns, founder and CEO of Citizen Sports. “We look forward to becoming a part of Yahoo! and bringing our social experiences to their 600 million users around the globe.”