Internet giant Yahoo! has bought a Summly app created by British teenager Nick D’Aloisio in a deal thought to be worth ‘dozens of millions’ of pounds.
Yahoo! has purchased the app, which summarises the news stories from well known media companies, from its 17-year-old creator.
A piece in The Independent this week says that the price of buying the app has not been disclosed, but that it has been suggested by industry experts that the amount could be between £20 million and £40 million.
When Nick D’Aloisio spoke to the Evening Standard newspaper on Monday, he said he would probably be buying a new computer and trainers with some of the money he made from the sale.
He commented: “I just want to save and bank it. I don’t have many living expenses.”
Mobile products at Yahoo! will now have Summly features incorporated into them. Nick D’Aloisio will now work at Yahoo!, as well as doing his A Level studies.
His app automatically cuts lengthy online news stories and features by summarising them to make them more easily readable on mobile devices.
The app went to number nine in the free iPhone app chart in November and provides users a quick and simple way of finding news stories on the Internet.
Nick D’Aloisio said he was “delighted” about the Yahoo! deal.
In a message he wrote on the Summly website he said: “I am delighted to announce Summly has signed an agreement to be acquired by Yahoo!.
“After spending some time on campus, I discovered that Yahoo! has an inspirational goal to make people’s daily routines entertaining and meaningful, and mobile will be a central part of that vision. For us, it’s the perfect fit.
“When I founded Summly at 15, I would never imagine being in this position so suddenly.”
Now the Summly app will be closed from the Apple Inc store and its features will be integrated into mobile initiatives from Yahoo!.
Yahoo! has bought a number of small mobile and web start-ups since Marissa Mayer, the former Google executive, became chief executive last year.
The Yahoo! Summly purchase comes only two weeks after Google announced it was planning to retire Google Reader, its RSS reader application, from July 1st.
The purchase by Yahoo! of Summly is seen by some as a bid to fill the gap left in the market by Google Reader.
I often hear talk of people creating apps and discussions about whether app creation can make you rich: well here’s proof that it can – if the suggestions by industry experts of the figure the teenage creator is receiving are to be believed.
Good to see too that he doesn’t plan to blow his fortune, unlike the £1.8m lottery win couple featured in the press recently who are now penniless with a wrecked marriage.
I have never believed money can buy you happiness, although it certainly helps a lot to have some stability and security. It sounds like Nick D’Aloisio is a sensible young man who will have this stability and security from an early age: let’s hope he makes the most of it. I wish the very best of luck to him.