14 DAY TRIAL // Yahoo will apparently announce one of its first acquisitions for a while now, having paid a reportedly $20 million for the social email startup Xoopit. The announcement is expected to come in tomorrow according to All Things Digital's Kara Swisher, citing sources close to the deal. Yahoo has been looking at the startup for a while and it isn't the first time it made an offer for the company.
Xoopit makes a Gmail plugin that greatly enhances the experience, allowing users to browse and view the photos and video links in their emails without leaving the site. The plugin indexes all of the attachments they may have sent but also all of the links their friends may have sent them through email. It then allows users to view all of the photos in one place and to easily search and organize them. There is even the possibility to share that content with other friends either through Facebook or a blog.
Yahoo has been interested in the technology for a while and has even integrated some of the functionality in Yahoo Mail through its Open Strategy program, which allows third-party apps and services to run and integrate with some of its properties, including Mail. The My Photos app created by Xoopit has been an optional component in Yahoo Mail since last month, offering some enhanced features for managing photos from the emails.
With the new acquisition Yahoo is hoping to strengthen its Mail product with the photo-related features but, perhaps more importantly, with the Facebook integration the app brings. The deal is apparently done though other sources are saying the final agreement hasn't been reached yet. Both parties refused to comment. Xoopit was launched in 2008 with $5 million in funding from venture firms Foundation Capital and Accel Partners and a further $1.5 million from angel investors, but the company has been unprofitable so far.