Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) reportedly is near a deal to buy startup Xoopit for about $20 million, according to The Wall Street Journal's BoomTown blog.
The purchase of Xoopit would mark the first deal under Carol Bartz's tenure as CEO, which started in January. Bartz has focused on charting a new direction for the struggling Internet company following its messy battle fending off Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ:MSFT) unsolicited acquisition offer last year. Tuesday, Bartz provided details of her vision when she unveiled a redesigned Yahoo! home page, which highlights content from around the Web.
Xoopit's software helps people organize and share photos and other media stored in their e-mail and social networking accounts. It works with sites like Gmail, YouTube, Facebook and Yahoo!'s Mail and photo site Flickr. Xoopit's functionality certainly seems complementary with Bartz's vision.
Yahoo!'s possible purchase of Xoopit would provide venture investors Accel Partners and Foundation Capital an exit, and a modest return on their $5 million investment.
Meanwhile, Bartz may continue casting off parts of Yahoo!. Since fending off Microsoft's bid, Yahoo! has shut down 20 different products and businesses. Some such as Blo.gs.com and Kelkoo SA were sold. Next on the chopping blog are reportedly online career service HotJobs and Web hosting service Yahoo! Small Business. - Matthew Wurtzel
See story about Xoopit from BoomTown
See story about HotJobs sale from Corporate Dealmaker
See additional Xoopit stories via TechMeme
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